Optimization of Solid Fermentation Process of Bacillus megaterium and Its Application in Crop Growth

Abstract

This chapter mainly using the industrial and agricultural waste cassava residue, furfural residue, mushroom residue as the fermentation medium for Bacillus megatherium (Ahmed in J Appl Sci Res 4(10), 1199–1204, [1]). By optimizing the ratio of carbon and nitrogen sources, research optimal production process to produce low cost agricultural probiotics and to evaluate the effect of the microbial fertilizer. The results shows that the optimum parameters of solid fermentation was using the cassava residue as substrate, adding 5% glucose, 10% corn syrup as carbon and nitrogen sources, initial pH to 6.5–7.0, the initial moisture content is around 40% (Liu H et al in Cereal Feed Ind, [2]), the fermentation temperature is controlled at about 37 °C. The pepper field experiment shows that the bacterial fertilizer improved pepper yield per plant, fruit weight, flesh thickness, fruit length, fruit width by 14.71, 9.47, 13.22, 3.40, 25.91% respectively and make the pepper fruit become more rounded appearance. Further shows that the bacterial fertilizer has a good application value.

Authors Jinzhao Liu, Lin Zhao and Dong Ma contributed equally to this paper.