Author(s)

Arturo Díaz-Franco¹, Oscar Arath Grageda-Cabrera², Mónica Guadalupe Lozano-Contreras^3*

¹Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), Campo Experimental Rio Bravo Km 61 Carretera Matamoros-Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
²Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), Campo Experimental Bajio Km 6.5 Carretera Celaya-San Miguel de Allende, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.
³Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), Campo Experimental Mococha, Km 25 Carretera Merida-Motul, Yucatan, Mexico.

Microbial inoculants are of great importance in agro-ecology and plants. However, the symbiotic effectiveness of strains may vary between species or within the same species. Aim of the study was to select experimental microbial strains of national origin, to know its impact on growth of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in greenhouse and sterile soil. Five strains of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and eight rhizobacteria (two of them mutagenized) were compared with non-inoculated plants as control. Variables measured were index of chlorophyll SPAD, plant height, stem diameter (from the middle section), fresh biomass from stem, leaf, panicle, radical, and stem sugars content (°Brix) of every two internodes. The results showed that in the majority of cases, microbial strains exceeded the values of variables compared with control plants. The highest values of chlorophyll (41.8 SPAD), stem diameter (13.5 mm) and total fresh biomass (144.3 g), were recorded with rhizobacterias BS410 (Herbaspirillum sp.), B2709 (Pseudomonas sp.) and B4M4 (Azospirillum sp.), respectively.

Beneficial Microorganisms, Sorghum bicolor, Greenhouse Conditions

Díaz-Franco, A. , Grageda-Cabrera, O. and Lozano-Contreras, M. (2015) Effectiveness of Selected Microbial Strains on the Growth of Sweet Sorghum. Agricultural Sciences, 6, 772-777. doi: 10.4236/as.2015.68074.