The Impact of <i>Trichoderma harzianum</i> Together with Copper and Boron on Wheat Yield
Saeed Anwar, Ahmad Ali, Zahid Ullah, Dalal Nasser Binjawhar, Hassan Sher, Roshan Ali, Rashid Iqbal, Baber Ali, Iftikhar Ali
Abstract
Deficiency of micronutrients is a major problem faced by nearly half of the world population due to intake of poor-quality food. To overcome the problem of malnutrition, biofortification of cereal crops is believed to be a good approach to increase nutrient contents in our daily food. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the effect of foliar applied copper and boron alone and in combination with Trichoderma harzianum on yield attributes, grain quality, and nutrient contents of wheat. Wheat plants were treated with copper and boron in combination with or without T. harzianum . The applied treatments included Cu (0.05 M), Cu (0.1 M), T. harzianum, Cu (0.05 M)/ T. harzianum, Cu (0.1 M)/ T. harzianum, B (0.05 M), B (0.1 M), B (0.05 M)/ T. harzianum, B (0.1 M)/ T. harzianum, Cu (0.05 M)/B (0.05 M)/ T. harzianum, and Cu (0.1 M)/B (0.1 M)/ T. harzianum along with a control set for comparison. Results revealed significant enhancement in different studied growth traits including plant height, spike length, kernels per spike, harvest index, and chlorophyll content. In addition, this approach also enriched wheat grains with various micro/macronutrients including Cu, Fe, Zn, K, and P. This study concludes that the bioreagent T. harzianum along with foliar copper and boron may lead to reasonably enhanced grain quality and growth characteristics of wheat, further suggesting that the combined application of micronutrients along with T. harzianum under suitable conditions will make it an acceptable approach for crop improvements.