Assessment of beneficial fungal microorganism's bio-efficacy in stimulating morphological and physiological parameters of Allium cepa plants grown in soil amended with fish wastes

BACKGROUND

The increase in the human consumption of fish results in the production of organic fish wastes (FW). For enhanced soil fertility and plant growth at a lower cost and without the negative impacts of chemical fertilizers, these wastes could be employed as a valuable organic fertilizer. To determine the synergistic bio-efficacy of Trichoderma sp. and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in stimulating the morphological and physiological characteristics of FW-fertilized Alium cepa, as well as to investigate their involvement in boosting soil fertility, the current study was carried out. Overall, eight treatments were applied as follows: AM, Trichoderma sp., AM + Trichoderma sp., FW, AM + FW, Trichoderma sp. + FW, AM + Trichoderma sp. + FW, and control. Growth and physiological assessments of onion plants were taken after 8 weeks from FW application.

RESULTS

Our results showed that FW application combined with AM fungi and Trichoderma sp. inoculations increased aggregate stability of the soil (glomalin content) and soil chitinase activity. Moreover, using the bio-inoculations along with FW amendments significantly (p < 0.05) improved the photosynthetic pigments, protein, carbohydrates, and nutrients content of onion plants. It's interesting to note that the triple interaction of AM + Trichoderma sp. + FW led to the greatest increase in plant height, root length, number of leaves, and leaf area as well as total fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots. Besides, AM fungal colonization was at its highest percentage with Trichoderma sp. inoculation, although this percentage decreased with FW addition.

CONCLUSION

We concluded that the combined treatments of AM fungi and Trichoderma sp. along with FW application to the soil can be proposed as a successful strategy for plant performance in nutrient-deficient soils as both fungal inoculants are capable of degrading these wastes and converting them into manure suitable for farming so plants can uptake the minerals effortlessly.

The individual and interactive role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma viride on growth, protein content, amino acids fractionation, and phosphatases enzyme activities of onion plants amended with fish waste

The Green Revolution faced a great cost to meet ever-increasing demands for food, where indiscriminate use of agrochemicals resulted in non-friendly habitats. Therefore, the development of a sustainable approach to better crop production of onion seeds (Allium cepa L.) is very crucial. It is time to use organic waste as a replacement for agrochemicals by using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Trichoderma. Fish waste as representative of food waste acts as a leading cause of contamination of the environment. The interaction of AMF and Trichoderma viride on biomass, total soluble protein, mycorrhizal colonization, amino acids, phosphatases and phosphorus and nitrogen contents of onion plants grown in fish waste amended soil was studied. Fish waste has caused a slight increase in onions biomass, total free amino acids, and soluble protein content while with AMF and T. viride dual inoculation more increments were recorded; such increases were related to an increase in mycorrhizal colonization. T. viride application significantly increased the mycorrhizal colonization levels, but these were significantly reduced with waste addition. Analysis of amino acids in plants showed that their concentrations had changed as a result of waste addition combined with AMF and/or T. viride. The effectiveness of fish waste combined with low cost and health/environmental safety leads to a prediction that the introduction of fish waste coupled with fungi will become a more popular feature of agriculture in the future.