Improved growth and yield response of Jew’s mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) plants through biofertilization under semi-arid climate conditions in Egypt

Abstract

This study was conducted to comparatively assess the effects of fertilization typology (organic, inorganic, and biofertilization) on the growth, yield, and compositional profile of Jew’s mallow. The experiment was carried out over two growing seasons, under semi-arid climate conditions on silty loam soil. We adopted three fertilization strategies: (1) inorganic NPK fertilizer (146, 74, and 57 kg ha−1 for N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively), (2) farmyard manure (36 m3 ha−1), and (3) a biofertilizer (a set of mixed cultures of Bacillus spp., Candida spp., and Trichoderma spp. at 36 L ha−1). Treatment combinations were control (without fertilization, T1), NPK fertilizer (T2), farmyard manure (FYM, T3), biofertilizer (T4), NPK+biofertilizer (T5), and FYM+biofertilizer (T6). The T5 treatment maximized both plant and leaf biomass (up to 31.6 and 8.0 t ha−1, respectively), plant height (68.5 cm), leaf area (370 cm m−2), leaf protein content (18.7%), as well as N, P, and K concentration in leaves (2.99, 0.88, and 2.01 mg 100 g−1, respectively). The leaves’ weight incidence was lower in T5 treatment (36.7%) as compared to the unfertilized plants (T1). The results revealed that the combined application of inorganic NPK plus biofertilizer is most beneficial to increase growth, yield, and nutrient accumulation in Jew’s mallow plants.