Plant growth-promoting bacteria increase the yield of green maize and sweet sorghum

Abstract

Green maize and sweet sorghum are important non-legumes crops, mainly to smallholder farmers. These crops can be inoculated with plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) that could contribute to increasing the crop yield. This study assessed, in a 2-year experiment under field conditions, the inoculation of selected PGPB to green maize and sweet sorghum. The experiments consisted of seven treatments, being six PGPB (IPACC07, IPACC10, IPACC26, IPACC29, IPACC38, IPACC55) and one non-inoculated treatment as control. These treatments were associated with or without supplementary N fertilization (50% of N required by plants). An additional treatment with total N fertilization required by plants was included. Higher production of biomass in green maize and sweet sorghum was found by inoculation with IPACC38 and IPACC55. Inoculation with IPACC29, associated with supplementary N fertilization, promoted a higher production of total and marketable cobs. The values of Brix and sugars were higher with the inoculation with IPACC10 and IPACC38. This study showed a couple of PGPB to be indicated to each crop species (IPACC55 and IPACC29 to green maize; IPACC10 and IPACC38 to sweet sorghum), which suggest the use of double inoculation with these PGPB to each crop.

Keywords:

• Zea mays
• Sorghum bicolor
• plant-microbes interactions
• rhizobacteria

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (grants 426655/2018-4 Universal 2018; 305069/2018-1 PQ 2018), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES (Finance Code 001). João Pedro Alves Aquino, and Jadson Emanuel Lopes Antunes thank CAPES for their fellowship. Ana Dolores Santiago de Freitas, and Ademir Sergio Ferreira Araujo thank CNPq for their fellowship of research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.