The Effect of Seed and Soil Inoculation by Plant Growth Promoting Inoculants (Pseudomonas fluorescens) on Yield and Uptake of Some Nutrients in Corn

In order to determine the effect of plant growth promoting bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens on yield and nutrient availability in corn some special materials like mesoporous silica nanoparticles، vermicompost، bentonite and a mixture of all were inoculated by the bacteria and preserved for six months. Soil and seeds were treated by the inoculants. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments comprised of three inoculants and two fertilizers including diammonium phosphate، single super phosphate and control (without any phosphorus fertilizer). After 60 days of corn emergence، some plant growth indices and the concentration of some elements in plant shoots were measured. The results demonstrated that Pseudomonas fluorescens inoculant significantly increased phosphorus shoot content، total yield and chlorophyll by 74، 46 and 22. 1%، respectively compared to the control treatment (P<0. 05)، but it did not show any significant difference with phosphorus fertilizer treatments (P>0. 05). The vermicompost inoculants could significantly (P<0. 05) increase zinc and iron contents of shoots by 114 and 53. 6%، respectively in comparison to the control treatment. Orthogonal comparisons of the two methods of seed and soil inoculation showed the efficiency of seed inoculation on shoot phosphorus at 5% level، but no significant difference was observed between these two methods for other measured characteristics (P>0. 05).