Foliar Spraying with Endophytic Trichoderma Biostimulant Increases Drought Resilience of Maize and Sunflower
András Csótó | György Tóth | Péter Riczu | Andrea Zabiák | Vera Tarjányi | Erzsébet Fekete | Levente Karaffa | Erzsébet Sándor
Microbial biostimulants that promote plant growth and abiotic stress tolerance are promising alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Although <i>Trichoderma</i> fungi are known biocontrol agents, their biostimulatory potential has been scarcely studied in field conditions. Here, the mixture of two endophytic <i>Trichoderma</i> strains (<i>Trichoderma afroharzianum</i> TR04 and <i>Trichoderma simmonsii</i> TR05) was tested as biostimulant in the form of foliar spray on young (BBCH 15-16) maize (5.7 ha) and sunflower (5.7 and 11.3 ha) fields in Hungary. The stimulatory effect was characterized by changes in plant height, the number of viable leaves, and the chlorophyll content, combined with yield sensor collected harvest data. In all trials, the foliar treatment with <i>Trichoderma</i> spores increased photosynthetic potential: the number of viable leaves increased by up to 6.7% and the SPAD index by up to 19.1% relative to the control. In extreme drought conditions, maize yield was doubled (from 0.587 to 1.62 t/ha, <i>p</i> < 0.001). The moisture content of the harvested seeds, as well as sunflower height, consistently increased post-treatment. We concluded that foliar spraying of young plants with well-selected endophytic <i>Trichoderma</i> strains can stimulate growth, photosynthesis, and drought tolerance in both monocot maize and dicots sunflower crops in field conditions.
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