Abstract: The quality of agricultural production and their modulation by biofertilizer application has gradually received attention. However, the importance of
Bacillus strains has not been studied extensively especially in strawberry. The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of
Bacillus strains on growth, yield and quality of strawberry
cv. Chandler during the year 2016-17 and 2017-18. The study indicates that various
Bacillus strains significantly influenced growth, yield and quality of fruits. Among different
Bacillus strains, HCA61 strain recorded the significantly higher fruit yield per plant (233.69 g). It also recorded the highest value concerning different growth parameters,
viz., plant height (12.56 cm), spread (22.78 cm), number of leaves per plant (11.31), crown diameter (12.46 mm), fresh weight (43.86 g) and dry weight (12.36 g) of plant with minimum number of days (79.50 days) to flower in strawberry plants. Among different yield attributing characters like number of fruits per plant (22.13), fresh weight of fruit (10.56 g), fruit length (40.31 mm), fruit breadth (28.83) and moisture content in fruit (92.83%), HCA61 strain showed superiority than other
Bacillus strains. Regarding various physicochemical characters,
viz. TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid and anthocyanin content of fruits,
Bacillus RCA3 strain, exhibited significantly highrt values. The
Bacillus strain HCA61 caused improved growth and yield. However, concerning the physicochemical characteristics of fruits
Bacillus RCA3 strain was found best. The results indicated that inoculation with
Bacillus strains could be an eco-friendly and cost-effective technology for improving strawberry growth, yield and quality.
