Global warming promotes soil calcification and salinization processes. As a result, soil phosphorus (P) is becoming deficient in arid and semiarid areas throughout the world. In this pot study, we evaluated the potential of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) for enhancing the growth and P uptake in maize under varying levels of lime (4.8%, 10%, 15% and 20%) and additional P supplements (farmyard manure, poultry manure, single super phosphate and rock phosphate) added at the rate of 45 mg P₂O₅ kg⁻¹. Inoculation and application of P as organic manures (Poultry and farm yard manures) improved maize growth and P uptake compared to the control and soils with P applied from mineral sources. Liming adversely affected crop growth, but the use of PSB and organic manure significantly neutralized this harmful effect. Mineral P sources combined with PSB were as effective as the organic sources alone. Furthermore, while single supper phosphate showed better results than Rock phosphate, the latter performed comparably upon PSB inoculation. Thus, PSB plus P application as organic manures is an eco-friendly option to improve crop growth and P nutrition in a calcareous soil under changing climate.

Evaluating Sporobolus spicatus Ecotypes under Different Mowing Heights for Turf use

| Tuberose ( Polyanthas tuberosa), is an important ornamental and perfumery plant. The research was conducted at University of Swabi during summer 2018 to evaluate the performance of tuberose under various concentrations of gibberellic acid and micronutrients. Experiment was laid in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) using two factors i.e. gibberellic acid and micronutrients with three replications. Both the factors gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and micro nutrients had their significant effects. The best performance was found in the interaction of GA3 and micronutrients for plant height (53,21cm), number of leaves (16.34), length of spike (77.68cm), diameter of spike (7.51cm), floret number (25.27) and length of rachis (16.1cm) at 150 ppm gibberellic acid and 3000 ppm micro nutrients and hence recommended for increasing growth and flowers in tuberose.

| Gladiolus ( Gladiolus grandiflorus L) is a key crop in floriculture industry used for cut flowers in interior decoration. Fertilizers have prominent role in quality flower production. To investigate the performance of gladiolus at different application rate of nitrogen and potash, a study was conducted at National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) Islamabad, in May to August 2018. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 10 treatment combinations of nitrogen (0, 100, 200, 400 kg ha -1 ), Potash (0, 100, 200, 400 kg ha -1 ) and other combinations (200N + 100K kg ha -1 , 100N + 200K kg ha -1 and 400N + 400K kg ha -1 ) with four replications. There were 10 plants in each replication. The highest number of florets per spike (11.42) were obtained at treatment combination of nitrogen and potash (100N +200K kg/ha) where other parameters of plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and spike length were at par with their respective maximum results. However, the lengthiest spike (88.10cm) was produced at 100kg/ha nitrogen. Similarly, the application of nitrogen at the rate of 200 kg/ha produced tallest (110.95cm) plants with maximum (9.37) number of leaves and lengthiest (55.75cm) leaves. It can be concluded that application of nitrogen and potash at the rate of 100 kg ha -1 and 200 kg ha -1 should be applied for better yield and quality of flowers of gladiolus.