Effect of Phosphatic Microbial Fertilizers Produced from Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria on Phosphorus Uptake and Growth of Maize

One of the problems associated with the production of granular microbial fertilizer is the elimination of bacteria in the drying process of fertilizer. One solution for this problem is using thermal resistant phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB). In this study, the efficiency and effectiveness of some PMFs prepared by using two thermal resistant PSB (isolates RPS9 and RPS7) and one thermal sensitive PSB (isolate RPS4) in the basal formulation of rock phosphate (45 g), bagasse (30 g) and sulfur (15 g) were evaluated on the maize growth. The experimental design was CRD with 7 treatments including control treatment (without chemical and microbe fertilizer), triple super phosphate fertilizer treatments at the rates of 100% and 50% of the fertilizer recommendation (equivalent to 300 and 150 mg/kg soil, respectively), with bacterial treatments (RPS4, RPS7, and RPS9), in three replications. The results obtained from the greenhouse experiments showed that total wet and dry weight of the plants and uptake of phosphor in the root and shoot of corn S.C.704 were significantly influenced by the PMFs. RPS4 bacteria treatments had similar performance to triple super phosphate 100% and RPS9 had similar performance to 50% triple super phosphate. RPS7 had lower performance than the other two bacteria. From the two heat resistant isolates that were recently isolated and both belonged to the species Pantoea agglomerans, RPS9 seemed more promising for this purpose.