Long-term manurial endowment on soil culturable bacterial dynamics, biological properties, and productivity of cabbage in acid Inceptisols

Introduction Soil culturable bacterial population dynamics is crucial for soil health which suffers due to overexploitation and other unsustainable practices. Long-term manurial endowments are becoming more common as a component of regenerative agriculture linked to crop productivity. Methods The present study was undertaken to give an insight into regenerative agriculture. A total of 10 manurial practices formulated with integrating soil test-based inorganic fertilizers (STD), farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost (VC), consortia biofertilizers (BFs), lime (L), organic I, and organic II were evaluated. Results The integrated treatments T8 (STD + VC at 2.5 t ha −1 + BFs + L) significantly enhanced the diversity of beneficial bacterial genera such as Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium , Azotobacter, Azospirillum , and Alcaligenes. Biological activities like soil enzyme activities (urease and dehydrogenase), microbial biomass carbon, and nitrogen were synergistically proliferated in T8 (STD + VC at 2.5 t ha −1 + BFs + L). After long-term utilization of STD + VC at 2.5 t ha −1 + BFs + L (T8) MBC, MBN, and DHA were enhanced by 36%, 85%, and 12% over soil test doses of the fertilizer application package. Physiological plant traits, leading to the highest cabbage yield (22 t ha −1 ), head circumference (42.53 cm), and total chlorophyll content (2.11 mg g −1 ), demonstrated strong interdependence between microbial health and plant performance. Combining bio-inoculants and liming techniques increased the economic yield of cabbage by 13%-21% at P = 0.05 over control. The antibiotic sensitivity profiling reflected adaptive responses by long-term manurial endowment on soil ecological dynamics. Multivariate analyses, including PCA, regression, and path modelling, confirmed the pivotal role of culturable soil bacterial population dynamics for optimizing both microbial functions and cabbage productivity. Conclusion The study underscores the importance of integrating inorganics, organics, bio-inoculants, and strategic chemical amendments for a regenerative agriculture in acid Inceptisols .