First Report on Development of Liquid Microbial Consortium for Plant Growth Promotion of Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) Growing in Indian Himalayan Regions.

The need for high-quality food in the form of nutrients and a balanced diet is one of the biggest problems faced by human population worldwide. The miscellaneous requisition of synthetic fertilizers in order to augment agricultural output causes harmful effects to the agro-ecosystems. The development of biostimulants from a combination of two or more microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and archaea) may be a suitable substitute for agrochemicals in agriculture system. In the current research, 101 bacteria were sorted out from the rhizospheric and the endophytic regions of wheat using a variety of growth media. Bacteria were screened for plant growth-promoting (PGP) characteristics and the efficient strains were identified as Erwinia aphidicola (N2-fixer), Paenibacillus tundra (P-solubilizer), and Lysinibacillus fusiformis (K-solubilizer) by molecular technique. These efficient identified isolates were evaluated for their ability to stimulate flax growth under in vitro and in vivo condition. The formulation of microbial consortium was found to have greater ability to improve the growth of flax. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first report on Erwinia aphidicola EU-WRN-1, Paenibacillus tundra EU-WRN-5, and Lysinibacillus fusiformis EU-WRN-21 associated with rhizospheric and endophytic regions of wheat and also reported for the first time as NPK liquid consortium of these strains on growth enhancement of flax. The findings reveal that microbial consortium was more efficient and could be a useful tool for agricultural growing crops in high and low altitudes, and alpine and subalpine conditions.