Statistical Interpretation of Quantitative and Qualitative Changes in Microflora of Rhizosphere and Rhizoplane Induced by Foliar Spray of Gibberellic Acid at Different Growth Stages of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer ariatinum L.) is the third most important pulse crop in the world while in India it was cultivated in a 9 million hectares area which is 90% of the world's production. To assess the quantitative and qualitative effect of foliar spray of Gibberellic Acid (GA) on mycoflora of rhizosphere and rhizoplane of chickpea in different growth stages. The foliar spray of GA i.e. control (without GA), 25 (low), 50 (medium), and 100 ppm (high) concentrations were applied in a complete randomized design at the different growth stages of chickpea i.e. pre-flowering, flowering, and fruiting stage. Different quantitative and qualitative parameters were assessed and statistical interpretation was done. The number of fungal species in both i.e. rhizosphere and rhizoplane was significantly decreased on increasing GA concentration. In the rhizosphere, a significant decrease was observed at the high dose in a pre-flowering stage while the flowering stage showed at medium and high doses but the fruiting stage was observed in all treatments. In rhizoplane, a significant decrease was observed at all treatments in the pre-flowering stage while in the flowering stage observed only at high doses but non-significant in the fruiting stage. A similar trend was also observed in the case of the number of root nodules and shoot length. The amino acids and sugars decreased in number with the age of plant growth. Fungal species loading was moderate and weak loading with 88% and 91% variance for both rhizosphere and rhizoplane and showed significant correlation.