Effect of water extraction of Nostoc commune and rhizobial inoculantson seedling growth of Caragana microphylia

Caragana microphylia not only plays important roles in wind prevention and sandfixation, conservation soil erosion, but also provide highquality feed for livestock due to its strongly cold and drought resistance. A pot and a field experiments were conducted to determine the effect of water extraction of Nostoc commune and rhizobial inoculants on seedling growth of C. microphylia in this study by individually and jointly ways. This study showed that the extraction of N. commune and rhizobial inoculants remarkably encouraged the seedling growth of C. microphylia. The field experiment showed that the rate of seed emergence was 91.1% when seeds were inoculated by the rhizobial inoculants HBU037001. The seedling biomass of C. microphylia increased by 11.5% and 17.7% when seeds were treated by 1/20 concentration of N. commune and HBU037002, respectively. The combined treatment (1/10 concentration of N. commune rhizobial inoculants HBU037001) were the best one, which increased the seedling biomass by 28.2%.