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Keywords
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Aloe vera, Aloin, Biofertilizer, Gel weight, Mycorrhizal colonization, Water productivity
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Abstract
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Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) is a perennial drought tolerant medicinal species. This research study
investigates the influence of biofertilizers on mycorrhizal fungi colonization, leaf number and width, plant
height, offset number, leaf relative elongation rate (RER), leaf dry weight and leaf gel weight, water productivity
(WP) for the gel, and aloin content in Aloe vera plants. The experiments were carried out in the warm
and dry climate of Bushehr Province, Iran during 20162018. Treatments are reported to include irrigation
regimes and biofertilizers at four levels. In terms of irrigation regimes, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of water
requirement accompanied the following treatments for biofertilizers, phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria (PSB),
mycorrhizal fungi (MF), PSB+MF, and control (without any biofertilizers). The PSB includes Pseudomonas
putida strain P13 and Pantoea agglomerans strain P5, in addition to Glomus mosseae as MF. The biofertilizer
benefits (remarkably PSB+MF) on investigated traits were observed in three harvests. The results confirm the
positive impacts of biofertilizers on important traits such as offset number (an economical part of Aloe vera
planting), water productivity with less water consumption, and root colonization, which is the main reason
of increasing the mentioned traits. Considering the minimal difference between 100%, 75% and 50% of water
requirement in terms of gel fresh weight and more aloin content in 50% of our experiments, Aloe vera is
reported as a high drought tolerant plant which merely requires an acceptable gel yield and aloin content.
Moreover, better water productivity and consumption is possible in warm and arid regions by applying 50%
of Aloe vera water requirement as well as biofertilizers.
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