Author(s):

Swati H Patel, MB Viradiya and Bhavik J Prajapati

Abstract: Potassium (K) is considered as an essential macronutrient and a major constituent within all living cells. About 98% of the potassium in the earth’s crust exists in insoluble forms as rocks and silicate minerals, resulting in very low concentrations of soluble potassium in the soil for plant growth and development. Naturally, soils contain K in larger amounts than any other nutrients; however most of the K is unavailable for plant uptake. There are certain microorganisms which use a number of biological processes to make potassium available from unavailable forms. These potassium-mobilizing bacteria (KMB) can be used as a promising approach to increase K availability in soils, thus playing an important role for crop establishment under K-limited soils. The experiment comprising twelve-treatment combinations was laid out in Randomized Block Design (factorial) with three replications. The treatment consisted of two levels of FYM viz., 0 t ha^-1 (F₀) and 10 t ha^-1 (F₁) and two levels of Potassium Mobilizing Bacteria viz., without KMB (KMB₀) and with KMB (KMB₁) and three levels of potassium viz., 0 kg K₂O ha^-1 (K₀), 20 kg K₂O ha^-1 (K₁) and 40 kg K₂O ha^-1 (K₂). The application of FYM, Potassium Mobilizing Bacteria and potassium showed marked increased in root biomass, dry matter, spike length, total number of tillers and grain yield. Interaction effects between FYM, KMB and potassium were found to be significant. Treatment combination KMB₁K₂ (KMB along with potassium @ 40 kg ha^-1) recorded significantly the highest spike length (10.54 cm), Treatment combination F₁KMB₁K₂ (FYM @ 10 t ha^-1 along with KMB and potassium @ 40 kg ha^-1) recorded significantly higher grain yield (5640 kg ha^-1).

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