T
hrough its life cycle, plants face a number of stresses. salinity is one of the most environmental factors restraining crops production.
Helianthus tuberosus is a valuable vegetable crop with rich nutritional and medicinal properties. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for environmentally safe and sustainable approaches to mitigate the harmful effects of salinity on H. tuberosus and improve its production. In this study, we used vermicompost and vermicompost tea to ameliorate salt-induced stress by regulating the soil bacterial community. The current study aims to investigate the effects of vermicompost, different dilutions of vermicompost tea treatments with or without molasses or whey on soil bacteriomes, and H. tuberosus (Fuseau genotype) growth, physio-biochemical changes under soil affected by salinity in two-season experiments. The results support our hypothesis that vermicompost tea with different additives leads to an increase in soil bacterial community, significantly enhancing H. tuberosus growth and yield components in a concentration-dependent manner. The combination of 20% vermicompost tea with molasses showed the maximum positive effects, followed by the 20% whey vermicompost tea combination on the growth, productivity, and yield quality of H. tuberosus compared to the other treatments. Positive correlations were observed between tuber fresh weight and most of the studied traits. The findings of this study can offer valuable insights that vermicompost tea could be utilized for optimizing H. tuberosus cultivation under salinity stress, aiding in the development of effective strategies to enhance crop productivity and mitigate the negative impacts of salinity on agricultural systems