Effects of Trichoderma harzianum biofertilizer on growth, yield, and quality of Bupleurum chinense .

The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides led to a decline in the quality and yield of . The aim of this study was to determine the effects of biofertilizer on the growth, yield, and quality of radix bupleuri and microbial responses. The results showed that biofertilizer promoted the growth of and increased the yield and quality of radix bupleuri. In addition, it increased the contents of NH -N, NO -N, available K, and available P and increased the activities of sucrase and catalase in the rhizosphere soil. High-throughput analysis showed that the dominant bacteria in the rhizosphere were Proteobacteria (28%), Acidobacteria (23%), and Actinobacteria (17%), whereas the dominant fungi were Ascomycota (49%), Zygomycota (30%), and Basidiomycota (6%). After the application of biofertilizer, the abundance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria (relative to total bacteria) and Ascomycota and Basidiomycota (relative to total fungi) increased, but the relative abundance of Acidobacteria decreased. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) showed that the relative abundance of , , , , , and were positively correlated with NO -N, NH -N, available K, available P, sucrase, and catalase in microbial communities, whereas and were positively correlated with soil organic matter and urease. These results suggest that biofertilizer could significantly improve the yield and quality of radix bupleuri by changing the structure of soil microbial flora and soil enzyme activity. Therefore, it could be recommended for commercial scale production of .