Effect of phosphate solubilizing microorganisms on soil available phosphate and growth of young tea

Abstract

Incubation and pot culture experiments were conducted with eleven treatments replicated thrice in the completely randomized design (CRD) with surface soils collected from the tea field. The objectives of the investigation were to evaluate the tea plant’s response to the PSM, viz. phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB, viz. Bacillus subtilis) and phosphate solubilizing fungus (PSF, viz. Aspergillus niger), determining an alternative to the traditional phosphatic fertilizers. The results indicated that application of 50% of the recommended doses of phosphate in combination with either PSB or PSF significantly increased P availability to the tea plant resulting in considerable P-fertilizer savings for the P-deficient acidic soils used for the present investigation. PSF performed better than PSB.