Table 3.
Shoot dry matter, grain yield, and Zn partitioning index of wheat grains as a function of plant growth-promoting bacteria and foliar applied nano-Zn doses.
| Treatments | Shoot dry matter | Grain yield | Zn partitioning index | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ——————– kg ha−1 —————— | —— % —— | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Inoculations | ||||||
| Without | 4,843 b | 4,909 b | 3,436 | 3,341 | 70 b | 131 |
| A. brasilense | 5,009 ab | 5,095 a | 3,508 | 3,705 | 75 b | 139 |
| B. subtilis | 5,072 a | 5,066 ab | 3,582 | 3,731 | 78 ab | 137 |
| P. fluorescens | 5,099 a | 5,172 a | 3,595 | 3,883 | 84 a | 132 |
| Foliar Zn application (kg ha−1) | ||||||
| 0 | 4,941 | 4,940 | 3,424 | 3,602 | 73 | 121 |
| 0.75 | 4,998 | 5,049 | 3,462 | 3,680 | 78 | 149 |
| 1.5 | 5,090 | 5,203 | 3,595 | 3,787 | 80 | 138 |
| 3 | 5,044 | 5,070 | 3,601 | 3,641 | 77 | 133 |
| 6 | 4,957 | 5,041 | 3,569 | 3,615 | 75 | 135 |
| F-values | ||||||
| Inoculation (I) | 6.5** | 6.4** | 1.4 ns | 17** | 6.2** | 0.9 ns |
| Foliar Zn (FZ) | 1.5 ns | 3.7** | 1.3 ns | 1.4 ns | 1.0 ns | 5.1** |
| I × FZ | 1.5 ns | 0.8 ns | 2.8** | 2.9 ** | 0.8 ns | 6.4** |
| CV (%) | 4 | 3.8 | 7.8 | 6.7 | 13.2 | 13.2 |
Means in the column followed by different letters are significantly different (p-value ≤ 0.05); ** and * denote significant at p ≤ 0.01 and p ≤ 0.05, respectively; ns indicates non-significant, by F-test.