*3.3. Bitter Gourd Yield per Plant*

PGPRs *S. maltophilia* and *A. fabrum* and RNPKF under 2 and 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil significantly (*<sup>p</sup>* <sup>≤</sup> 0.05) affect bitter gourd yield per plant (YP). At 2 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil, inoculation of PGPRs has significant main and interactive effects on YP. Application of RNPKF has a significant main effect on YP at 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil. Treatment RNPKF + *A. fabrum* was significantly different as compared to control at 2 and 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil Cd for YP (Figure 6). It was observed that the interaction of PGPRs and RNPKF was significant ordinal at 2 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil (Figure 7A) but non-significant ordinal at 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil for YP (Figure 7B). Heavy metal Cd showed significant negative correlation (−0.4385; *p* = 0.0075) with YP. However, PGPRs (0.5035; *p* = 0.0017) and RNPKF (0.3829; *p* = 0.0212) showed

positive significant correlation with YP (Figure 8). The maximum increase of 26.5 and 21.1% in YP was observed from control, where RNPKF + *A. fabrum* was applied at 2 and 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil, respectively.

**Figure 6.** Bitter gourd yield (kg) per plant treated with PGPRs, RNPKF, and their combination under 2 and 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil. Different small letters express significant differences at *<sup>p</sup>* <sup>≤</sup> 0.05.

**Figure 7.** Interaction graph of *S. maltophilia* (NS1), *A. fabrum* (NS2), and RNPKF at 2 (**A**) and 5 mg Cd kg−<sup>1</sup> soil (**B**) for bitter gourd yield per plant (YP).

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**Figure 8.** Pearson correlation of Cd, PGPRs, and RNPKF for yield per plant (YP)\* = significant (*p* ≤ 0.05); ns = non-significant.
