Beneficial effect of microbial bioformulations on nutrient availability, microbial biomass carbon and key enzymatic activities in citrus orchard soil

The current investigation is designed to illustrate the beneficial effect of different microbial bioformulations
on nutrient availability, microbial biomass carbon and key enzymatic activities in a citrus orchard soil. Three
different microbial bioformulations namely Biogreen-5, Bioveer and Biosona were arranged in seven different
treatments including T1
: Biogreen (soil + foliar application); T2
: Biogreen (foliar application); T3
: Bioveer (soil
+ foliar application); T4
: Bioveer (foliar application); T5
: Biosona (soil + foliar application); T6
: Biosona (foliar
application); T7
: Control (water spray). Biogreen when applied as soil and foliar application increased the soil
pH by 6.18%, organic carbon by 27.27%, and cationic exchange capacity by 6.24% over control. Like-wise,
Biogreen applied both as soil and foliar application increased the availability of N, P, K, Mn, Zn, Fe and B content
by 20.17%, 22.19%, 31.74%, 52.81%, 40.76%, 33.60% and 51.47%, respectively over control. Furthermore, the
application of Biogreen (soil + foliar application), demonstrated noteworthy enhanced in microbial biomass
carbon, and key enzyme activities including dehydrogenase, phosphomonoesterase, and fluorescein diacetate
hydrolysis, with significant improvements up to 39.58%, 23.39%, 30.21%, and 36.15%, respectively as compared
to control. The findings of the current investigation indicated that Biogreen followed by bioveer serves as an
effective biological formulation, for sustaining microbial biomass carbon, cationic exchange capacity, essential
plant nutrients and key enzymatic activities.