Implementation of proper management practices using biological
approaches is important to maintain soil quality and cotton yield in sandy
desert soils of Egypt. This experiment was conducted at the Agriculture
Experimental farm, Kafer El-Sheikh governorate, Cotton Research Institute
of Egypt during 2016–2017 seasons to study the effect of inoculation with
bacterial strains of Bacillus circulance (BC) and Bacillus megatherium (BM)
and their co-inoculation in combinations with 50% and 100% of recommended
dose fertilization (RDF) on growth, yield, and fiber properties of
Egyptian cotton Giza-94. Results showed that all important morphological
attributes of cotton such as plant growth, number of fruit sympodial
branches, number of bolls per plant, boll weight, lint cotton yield and fiber
properties significantly increased with the increase rate of RDF, and inoculation
of cotton seeds with the bacterial strains exerted additive effects.
The highest increase of cotton yield was observed at the combined use of
bacterial strains BCþBM with 50% RDF followed by BCþBM with 100%
RDF treatment which attributed on the cotton yield increase by 33% and
15% compared to the respective control. The application of Bacillus strains
as a biofertilizer could be an alternative option to reduce considerable
amounts of chemical fertilizers input by enhancing nutrient use efficiency
(NUE) and, thereby, improves cotton productivity.