2024/01/01 by Tirfessa, Tamirat, Jalata, Zerihun, Lamessa, Kinde
#Nitrogen fixation #Nodules #Plant nutrition #Regression analysis #Root growth
paper · doi:10.20372/afnr.v1i2.806
Roots and nodulation characteristics of legume crops have wide implication for plant nutrition, growth, and development. This study aimed to explore the combined effect of rhizobium-inoculated common bean varieties and NPSB fertilizer rates on nodulation and root characteristics. Three common bean varieties (Local, Loko, and Nasir) were combined with four rates of blended NPSB fertilizers (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg ha-1) in RCB design with a factorial arrangement in three replications. The results showed that the main effect of common bean varieties and NPSB blended fertilizer rates caused significant effect on nodulation and root growth while the interaction effect on total number of nodules per plant was significant. Maximum tap root length (8.4cm), root fresh weight plant-1(24.22g), root dry weight plant-1(4.2g), nodules fresh weight plant-1 (11.84g) and nodules dry weight (1.29g) of common bean were obtained from application of 150 kg NPSB ha-1 fertilizer. Loko variety yielded the highest mean value for tap root length (7.5cm), root fresh weight plant-1 (18.4g), root dry weight plant-1(3.56g), nodules fresh weight plant-1(10.8g), nodules dry weight plant-1 (1.12g) while Nassir gave highest effective nodules plant-1 (39.7.) as compared to the rest. The regression line drawn revealed the effect of NPSB fertilizer was significantly higher than the varietal effect on root development and nodulation. Therefore, root and nodulation characters had been significantly increased at 150 kg NPSB ha-1) blended fertilizer while Loko and Nassir variety gave higher root development and nodulation, respectively.