Isolation of rhizobacteria associated with maize and assessment of their potential for use in Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. suicidal germination

Abstract

A screen-house pot experiment with commercial hybrid maize variety H511 was conducted at Kenya Sugar Research Foundation, Kisumu sub-station; Kenya. The experimental soil was infested with Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. at a rate of 1000 seeds/pot. The bacterial treatments were Enterobacter sakazakii, Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella oxytoca and the uninoculated control in sterile soil. The plants were harvested at 78 days after planting and plant biometric parameters were determined. Except for K. oxytoca there was no significant differences among bacterial isolates for the number of days to S. hermonthica emergence compared to the uninoculated control. K. oxytoca was the major component of the total variation for S. hermonthica visual rating. E. sakazakii treated plants supported the largest amount of emerged S. hermonthica (2.82 Striga stems/pot) and the largest attached S. hermonthica (7.70 stem/pot). The result provided evidence that the application of any of these isolates could offer a better form of S. hermonthica biological control.