Influence of Vermicompost, Seaweed Extract and Nitrogen Fertilisers on Maize (Zea mays L.) Soil Rhizosphere Microbes

Abstract

This study shows the influence of adding vermicompost fertiliser, seaweed extracts and nitrogen fertiliser on the number of total bacteria in the soil in the stages of flowering and full maturity. An experiment was carried out in one of the farms located in Nouriya district - Al-Diwaniyah governorate - Iraq, during the autumn season 2019-2020. The experiment was applied in the order of global experiments, according to the design of full randomised sectors, with three replications. The first factor included adding vermicompost fertiliser with three levels (0, 2 and 4 tons h-1) which were coded as A0, A1 and A2, respectively. The second factor included adding seaweed extract at two levels (0 and 40 kg h-1), which were symbolised by B0 and B1, respectively. The third factor included adding nitrogen fertiliser in three levels (0, 120 and 240 kg N h-1) symbolised as C0, C1 and C2, respectively. The levels of vermicompost differed significantly in most of the studied descriptions, as level A2 scored the highest results for the number of bacteria in the two stages of flowering and full maturity, i.e., 88.59 × 107 and 111.54 × 107 CFU gm-1 of dry soil. The treatment of adding seaweed extracts B1 significantly affected the number of bacteria in the two stages of flowering and full maturity (80.04 × 107 and 103.29 × 107 CFU gm-1 dry soil). The treatment of adding C1 nitrogen fertiliser was significantly superior to the number of bacteria in the flowering stage (81.40 × 107 CFU gm-1 dry soil).