Evaluation of NPK fertilizers and bacterial inoculants influence on soil dehydrogenase activity and microbial biomass and yield of maize

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of an application of different rates of mineral fertilizers and their combination with associative N-fixing Klebsiella planticola and Enterobacter spp. and sampling period on microbial biomass carbon and dehydrogenase activity in Cambisol and grain yield of maize. The values of the studied parameters of the soil microbial activity were significantly higher in the variants where combination of bacterial inoculants and lower rates of mineral fertilizers was applied, as well as in the second sampling period. Mentioned combination also resulted in higher grain yield of maize comparing to the application of lower rates of the pure NPK nutrients.