effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria along with zinc and manganese foliar spraying on morphological and growth parameters of basil (ocimum basilicum l.)

in order to investigate the effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (pgpr) along with zinc (zn) and manganese (mn), foliar spraying on the morphological parameters of basil (ocimum basilicum l.) an experiment was conducted in factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2011. treatments were the pgpr inoculation with azotobacter and azospirillum (azb+azl), azospirillum, pseudomonas and bacillus (azl+psf+ bas), uninoculated control along with micronutrients foliar application (control, mn, zn and mn+zn). results showed that the  plant height was significantly enhanced by 33 and 29 % when the plant inoculated with either azb+azl or foliar sprayed with both mn and zn. florescence length of azl+psf+bas and azb+azl inoculated plants was 33 and 35% more than those uninoculated plants. fresh weights of stem, leaf, shoot and leaf dry weight were 45, 85, 63 and 48 % greater in azl+psf+bas inoculated plants when foliar sprayed with zn. also in compare with control, shoot dry weight was increased by 17 to 30 % from coinoculation of azb+azl with zn or zn+mn foliar spraying. in conclusion, the results indicated the positive response of basil medicinal plant to coinoculation of pgpr's and foliar spraying of both zn and mn.