Agronomic performance and quality of baby corn in response to the inoculation of seeds with Azospirillum brasilense and nitrogen fertilization in the summer harvest

Murilo Fuentes Pelloso; Pedro Soares Vidigal Filho; Carlos Alberto Scapim; Alex Henrique Tiene Ortiz; Alberto Yuji Numoto; Ivan Ramão Miranda Freitas

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14618

Agronomic performance and quality of baby corn in response to the inoculation of seeds with Azospirillum brasilense and nitrogen fertilization in the summer harvest

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 18;9(4):e14618. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14618. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Murilo Fuentes Pelloso¹, Pedro Soares Vidigal Filho^{1

2

3}, Carlos Alberto Scapim^{1

2

3}, Alex Henrique Tiene Ortiz², Alberto Yuji Numoto³, Ivan Ramão Miranda Freitas³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agronomy, State University of Maringá, Brazil.
² Postgraduate Program in Genetics and Breeding, State University of Maringá, Brazil.
³ Postgraduate Program in Agronomy, State University of Maringá, Brazil.

Abstract

The association with Azospirillum brasilense promotes better growth and development in corn plants due to biological N fixation, the capacity to help in the synthesis of phytohormones and to improve the use of nutrients by crop plants. However, there aren't specific recommendations for the use of inoculation in baby corn crop. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of seed inoculation with A. brasilense, associated with nitrogen fertilization management, on the agronomic performance and chemical quality of baby corn grown in three summer growing seasons (2014/2015; 2015/2016 and 2016/2017). The evaluated treatments consisted of combination of five levels of seed inoculation (0.0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mL 60,000 seeds^-1) based on Azospirillum brasilense, two levels of nitrogen fertilization at sowing time (0.0 and 30.0 kg of N ha^-1) and two levels of nitrogen in topdressing (0.0 and 110.0 kg of N ha^-1), applied at the V4 stage of the popcorn hybrid IAC 125. The characteristics evaluated were: leaf area index (LAI), leaf nitrogen content (LNC), total husked spikelets yield (HSY) and commercial spikelets yield (CSY), and the chemical characteristics of the commercial spikelets: crude protein content (CPC), starch content (STC) and total sugar content (TSC). The inoculation, when combined with nitrogen fertilization, provided positive responses for LAI and provided an average increment of 6 kg ha^-1 to CSY for every 10 mL 60,000 seeds^-1 of inoculant added to the seeds. The LNC, CPC, STC and TSC weren't affected by seed inoculation. Nitrogen fertilization provided increments for all characteristics evaluated, except for TSC, which was negatively affected by nitrogen topdressing. The baby corn crop responded positively to seed inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense, combined with Nitrogen fertilization.

Keywords: BNF; Diazotrophic bacteria; Inoculant; Spikelets; Zea mays L..