PRODUCTIVITY AND SEED QUALITY OF MODERN SOYBEAN VARIETIES DEPENDING ON PRESOWING INOCULATION UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE BLACK SEA REGION OF UKRAINE
Abstract
Purpose. To determine the effect of pre-sowing inoculation on crop structure, yield, and protein and fat content and yield in the soybean varieties Sofia and Monarch. Methods: field, analytical, computational-comparative, and mathematical statistics. Field studies were conducted in the Kherson region in 2023–2025 on experimental fields of the Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. The study included a control without treatment, RhizobinK, and its formulations with Bacillus velezensis IMV B-8134, Pseudomonas sp. 6, and Bacillus megaterium UKM B-5724. The following parameters were determined: plant height and the position of the first pod, the number of productive nodes, pods, and seeds, seed weight per plant and per 1,000 seeds, yield, and protein and fat content and yield. Results. The formulation containing Pseudomonas sp. 6 produced the highest number of pods and seeds per plant: 24 and 55, respectively, in the Sofia variety, and 35 and 78, respectively, in the Monarch variety. The highest yield was achieved with the application of the RhizobinK + B. velezensis IMV B-8134 mixture – 3.73 t/ha for the Sofia variety and 2.50 t/ha for the Monarch variety, which exceeded the control by 21.1% and 22.0%, respectively. In this treatment, the protein content was 39.93% and 40.81%, respectively, and the fat content was 18.37% and 19.51%. Protein yield reached 1,489 and 1,020 kg/ha, and fat yield reached 685 and 488 kg/ha. Conclusions. The response of soybean varieties to the inoculation mixtures varied. Pseudomonas sp. 6 had the greatest effect on individual components of the yield structure, while B. velezensis IMV B-8134 provided the best combination of yield and seed quality. For the conditions of Southern Ukraine, based on three-year data from 2023–2025, the variety-specific features of the influence of RhizobinK and its compositions with B. velezensis IMV B-8134, Pseudomonas sp. 6 and B. megaterium UKM B-5724 on the crop structure, yield and biochemical quality of soybean seeds were established. It was determined that the maximum individual productivity of plants and the highest soybean yield can be formed using different bacterial compositions. The RhizobinK + B. velezensis IMV B-8134 variant was determined to be practically the most valuable, which ensured the maximum yield and the highest protein and fat collection in both soybean varieties.
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