Influence of Pink Pigmented Facultative methylotrophic bacteria (PPFM) as a foliar spraying on the growth and productivity of strawberry(Fragaria xananassa Duch.).

Pink pigmented facultative methylotrophic bacterium (PPFM) has a favorable impact on plant development and production, it is known as a biostimulator, biofertilizer and biocontroller. Here we investigate the effect of foliar spraying of PPFM, 10% methanol,30% methanol, and their combinations on the growth, fruit quality, and yield of two strawberry cultivars. PPFM was isolated from cotton leaves using imprinting technique. 16S rRNA sequence analysis identified it to be Methylobacterium radiotolerance. Its 16S rRNA sequence were deposited in the Gene Bank under accession number MT644122.1. Two field experiments were conducted during the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons to investigate the effect of foliar spraying of PPFM and methanol (10 and 30%) on the growth, fruit quality, and yield of two strawberry cultivars. The obtained results showed that, there were no significant differences in the most characteristics between the two cultivars except foliage fresh weight and early yield were higher in cv. Florid, however, Festival cv. recorded higher total yield /plant, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid content in both seasons. Spraying PPFM exhibited the highest values of chlorophyll, fresh weight, total yield and quality. Furthermore, PPFM combined with methanol 10% gave the highest values of leaf area, dry matter %, early yield and some fruit quality. Spraying cv. Florida with PPFM resulted in the best interactions for early yield. However, the best interaction for total yield and most fruit quality features was observed with Festival c.v. and spraying PPFM. It is reasonable to conclude that PPFM is the most effective treatment, increasing strawberry total yield/fed by 28.1 % in the 1st season and 27.91 % in the 2nd season compared to the control.