Rhizosphere engineering through microbes enhances agronomic performance of acid lime

Rhizosphere engineering is an innovative approach to add qualitative value to plant rhizosphere to trigger improvement in crop performance without hampering the rhizosphere quality. We carried out a study addressing the agronomic performance of acid lime through microbes-mediated rhizosphere engineering in 7-year-old acid lime plant (var. NRCC acid lime-7) using as many eight treatments comprising combination of vermicompost (nitrogen equivalent basis), microbial consortium (Bacillus pseudomycoides Nakamura MF113272; Acinetobacter radioresistens Nishimura MF113273; Micrococcus yunnanensis Cohn MF113274; Aspergillus flavus Link MF113270 and Paenibacillus alvei Cheshire and Cheyne MF113275), rhizosphere soil of acid lime and Nagpur mandarin in a randomized block design at ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, Maharashtra. Our results showed that 20kg vermicompost along with microbial consortium significantly increased the canopy volume (31.13 m³) and fruit yield (6.20 tonnes ha⁻¹) of acid lime showing the impact of microbial consortium in restructuring the rhizosphere microbiome. These observations were in sharp contrast to response of recommended dose of fertilizers registering much lower increase in canopy volume (31.52 m³) and fruit yield (3.79 tonnes ha⁻¹). These observations suggested the value added response of microbial consortium along with vermicompost in ensuring the quality production of acid lime.