A total of eighteen endophytic bacterial isolates from tea roots were screened for their multiple plant growth promoting activities including indole acetic acid production (IAA) production, phosphate solubilization, ammonia production and siderophore production. All the isolates subjected for characterization were IAA producers Production of IAA was found to be remarkable in ER7 (10.45 μg/ml), ER14 (11.80 μg/ml), ER15 (11.40 μg/ml) and ER17 (16.22μg/ml). Among the isolates, seven were siderophore producers, five were phosphate solubilizers and twelve were found to be ammonia producers. Proper implementation of these plant growth promoting endophytic bacteria will open a new area in organic tea cultivation.
Endophytic isolates ER 15,ER17, and ER 18 may be used as potential biofertilizer agents to produce organic tea.
Endophytic bacteria, siderophore, phosphate solubilization, IAA, plant growth promotion
