Method of inducing drought/salt tolerance using
Provided are method of induce plant drought and/or salinity tolerance using microbes such as Bacillus , and particularly Bacillus megaterium cultures responsible for controlling plant drought and/or salinity tolerance.
1. A method for inducing drought tolerance in a plant comprising the steps of:
contacting said plant and/or its seed and/or its growth substrate with a composition comprising a whole cell broth, collected from a Bacillus megaterium strain H491 (NRRL Accession No. B-50769) fermentation, in an amount effective to increase said drought and/or salt tolerance of said plant.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said plaint is selected from the group consisting of strawberry, squash, cucumber, tomato, rose, pepper, eggplant, grapevine, cotton, onion, garlic, wheat, soy, corn and rice.
3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising transplanting said plant into said growth substrate.
4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein prior to transplanting said plant into said growth substrate, one or more roots of said plant are treated with said composition.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said composition comprises further comprises a biological drought tolerance inducing agent comprising Bacillus sp., Paecilomyces sp., Pasteuria sp., Pseudomonas sp., Brevabacillus sp., Lecanicillium sp., Ampelomyces sp., Pseudozyma sp., Streptomyces sp, Burkholderia sp., Trichoderma sp., Gliocladium sp., avermectin, Myrothecium sp., Paecilomyces spp., Sphingobacterium sp., Arthrobotrys sp., Chlorospirmium, Neobulgaria, Daldinia, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Lysobacter spp., Lachnum papyraceum, Verticillium suchlasporium, Arthrobotrys Oligospora, Verticillium chlamydosporium, Hirsutella rhossiliensis, Pochonia chlamydosporia, Pleurotus Ostreatus, Omphalotus Olearius, Lampteromyces japonicas, Brevudi monas sp., and/or Muscodor sp.