Application of Microbial Consortia to Suppress Maize Pathogens and Increase Nitrogen Availability

The overuse of fungicides and nitrogen fertilizers in corn production has caused significant environmental and economic challenges. These include water pollution, soil degradation, increased atmospheric resource management, and rising input costs that strain farm profitability. This research aims to address these issues by developing a microbial seed coating, which can improve nitrogen availability for corn and protect crops from plant disease. By reducing the need for synthetic inputs, this solution has the potential to lower input costs for farmers, limit the spread of harmful pathogens, and decrease environmental impacts.This work will use field trials to assess the impact of this microbial consortia at mitigating pathogen damage, increasing corn nitrogen content, and increasing yield. This will be accomplished by treating corn seed with either microbial consortia or conventional fungicide, planting them in plots with varying nitrogen fertilizer rates, and applying a granular pathogen treatment of Fusarium graminearum to half of the plots. We will assess plants throughout the year for pathogen damage, nitrogen content, and yield to determine how the microbial consortia influences corn relative to the conventional fungicide. Through these methods, the ultimate goal of this project is to demonstrate the efficacy of a microbial seed coating that can reduce nitrogen fertilizer application rates and suppress plant disease at rates similar to conventional fungicides. Achieving this goal is important because it will give growers an efficient tool to effectively reduce their fungicide and nitrogen application rates allowing them to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive agricultural landscape.