Effect of Microbial Seed Treatment on Root Growth of Wheat under Compacted Soil Condition

Soil compaction can seriously restrict root growth both in surface and subsurface soil layers, preventing the root system to uptake water and nutrients from deeper layers in wheat due to intensive puddling in rice. To understand the effect of compaction (BD= 1-3-3bulk density 1.4 g cmand BD= 1.8 g cm) 2on root growth of wheat, a pot experiment was conducted in ambient condition during wheat growing period (November-April) in 2017-18. This experiment was done with microbially treated wheat seeds (Mto M) to 16observe the effects of microbial cultures on root growth under compacted soil condition in comparison to control where no seed treatmentwasdone.BDregistereda1marginally 28% higher root length density than BD. Among seed treatment with 2microbial cultures (MC), MCresulted in 5highest root length density (23% higher than the control). Unlike root length density, root volume density was influenced significantly (p<0.05)bymicrobialseedinoculation,although soil compaction had marginal impact. Average diameter of root varied significantly among treatments due to both soilcompactionandmicrobialseedtreatment (p<0.01). Average diameter was significantly higher (20%, p<0.01) in BD2than BD. MCrecorded higher (45-33%, 12p<0.01) root diameter than other treatments but was comparable with MC. It can be 3concluded that Seed treatment with suitable microbial culture can promote the crop growth in general and root growth in particular under compacted soil condition