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ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to characterize and assess the plant growth promoting rhizobacteria on the rhizosphere of maize plants and their consequential effect on growth characteristics. Maize root was collected and carefully washed with distilled water to prevent minimum loss of nodules and standard microbiological methods were used for isolation and identification of bacterial isolates from the rhizosphere. Plant growth promoting properties of the isolates were valuated by production of indole acetic acid and hydrogen cyanide production. Bacteria seed germination were also evaluated. The results revealed that the dry weight of seedlings of different varieties of maize using different treatments with PGPB and control (without the PGPB). The seedling dry weight for all maize variety was found to range between 0.18 -0.25 g. While the fresh weight ranged from 0.27 – 0.31 g. Overall, it was observed that the fresh weight of old yellow maize variety was found to be slightly higher than other varieties evaluated in the study. 2 of 3 maize varieties (old and new yellow maize) had the highest number of branches but treatment with Bacillus as PGPB had no branch for the aforementioned maize varieties. The plant growth promoting effect of the bacteria isolates and the consortium for the different maize varieties showed that treatment with Yersinia for had the highest number of roots per seedlings for both New white maize variety and the Old yellow maize. The root length for New white maize was highest for the consortium (Bacillus + Yersinia) with a values 1.4 cm. There was a steady increase in the root length of new white maize variety. The effect of PGB was also evident in the number of seeds germinated by different varieties of maize. Bacillus had the most plant growth promoting effect for New white maize with the highest number of seeds germinated (6.5) while the control had 2.5. The shoot length (cm) for the maize varieties were found to be smallest for New white maize and highest for Old yellow maize. Treatment with Yersinia as PGPB gave the highest shoot length.
