Beneficial effect of microbial bioformulations on nutrient availability, microbial biomass carbon and key enzymatic activities in citrus orchard soil

Abstract

The current investigation is designed to illustrate the beneficial effect of different microbial bioformulations on nutrient availability, microbial biomass carbon and key enzymatic activities in a citrus orchard soil. Three different microbial bioformulations namely Biogreen-5, Bioveer and Biosona were arranged in seven different treatments including T1: Biogreen (soil + foliar application); T2: Biogreen (foliar application); T3: Bioveer (soil + foliar application); T4: Bioveer (foliar application); T5: Biosona (soil + foliar application); T6: Biosona (foliar application); T7: Control (water spray). Biogreen when applied as soil and foliar application increased the soil pH by 6.18%, organic carbon by 27.27%, and cationic exchange capacity by 6.24% over control. Like-wise, Biogreen applied both as soil and foliar application increased the availability of N, P, K, Mn, Zn, Fe and B content by 20.17%, 22.19%, 31.74%, 52.81%, 40.76%, 33.60% and 51.47%, respectively over control. Furthermore, the application of Biogreen (soil + foliar application), demonstrated noteworthy enhanced in microbial biomass carbon, and key enzyme activities including dehydrogenase, phosphomonoesterase, and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, with significant improvements up to 39.58%, 23.39%, 30.21%, and 36.15%, respectively as compared to control. The findings of the current investigation indicated that Biogreen followed by bioveer serves as an effective biological formulation, for sustaining microbial biomass carbon, cationic exchange capacity, essential plant nutrients and key enzymatic activities.

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Identifiers

DOI

10.58993/ijh/2025.82.2.6

Journal

Indian Journal of Horticulture

Year

2025