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Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production: Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression

Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production: Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression. Allison L H Jack Dr . Eric B. Nelson’s Laboratory Group Long Island Ag Forum 1-14-10. Overview. What is vermicompost? Nutrient management Disease suppression Conclusions and future directions.

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Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production: Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression

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  1. Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production: Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression Allison L H Jack Dr. Eric B. Nelson’s Laboratory Group Long Island Ag Forum 1-14-10

  2. Overview • What is vermicompost? • Nutrient management • Disease suppression • Conclusions and future directions

  3. 1. What is vermicompost?

  4. vermicompost $ Liability Asset Vermicompost and sustainable agriculture Excess manure: Synthetic inputs: $ Dairy operation Vegetable/ fruit grower $ Environmental problem Environmental problem

  5. Thermophilic compost Vermicompost Usually follows a hot composting step Worm beds (indoor) Windrows (outdoor) Entire process: ~70 days • Static aerated (indoor) • Windrows (outdoor) • 6-9 months curing • Relies primarily on action of microbes

  6. Earthworms “farm” microbes INPUT Decomposed  more available nutrients microbes Organic matter OUTPUT cast [Swift 1979]

  7. The soil ‘sleeping beauty paradox’ [Lavelle et al. 1995, Brown et al. 2000]

  8. Properties of end products • Equivalent total N • Vermicompost can have up to 2 x NO3- (plant available) ~700 mg kg-1 • Unique plant-associated microbial communities • Vermicompost is re-wettable and a finer texture • Vermicompost can have more highly humified organic matter

  9. 2. Nutrient management

  10. Factors affecting growth media performance • Nutrient levels • Plant availability – slow release • Electrical conductivity [EC] (salts) • Water holding capacity – drainage • Phytotoxicity – germination • pH • ‘Wetability’

  11. Organic tomato trials [Jack, Sooksa-Nguan, Culman, Rangarajan, Thies in press]

  12. Chemical characteristics

  13. Transplant biomass & yield

  14. Soluble nutrients can leach 20% Vermicompost & fish emulsion 20% Vermicompost

  15. Mixtures of amendments • Out of 21 media tested, hog and dairy manure vermicomposts at 20% with a mixture of blood meal, green sand and rock phosphate performed the best with tomato [Leonard & Rangarajan 2007] • May make nutrients in synthetic fertilizers more plant available [Mattson in progress] z Early yield calculated by combining yield from first three (2004) or first two (2005) harvests. y Means in the same year followed by the same letter are not significantly different at p<0.05.

  16. Cabbage trials • Organic materials rely on microbial activity to mineralize nutrients and make them plant available - results are temperature sensitive Control 10% VC & BM Blood meal 10% VC [Rangarajan, Leonard & Jack, ongoing]

  17. Vermicompost is added to tops of plug trays, aerated vermicompost extract is piped directly into overhead irrigation 2008

  18. Expensive equipment ($20,000) No shelf life Additives needed Cheap equipment ($250) Long shelf life No additives needed Non-aerated compost extract Aerated compost extract 100 gallon tub Timer Sump pump (circulates 2x a day) sump [ElzingaHoeksema Nurseries, MI]

  19. [with N. Mattson]

  20. 3. Disease suppression

  21. Vermicomposts can protect plants from disease • Multiple cases documented in scientific literature • But, suppression depends on: • Amendment rate • Type of feedstock • Temperature • Presence of synthetic fertilizers • Potting media substrate

  22. [Jack in press]

  23. It works…sometimes • Scientists don’t understand enough of how it works to predict if a compost will be suppressive or not • This is a major barrier to effective us of these materials for disease management • Cornell Soil Health program has developed soil testing that takes a more holistic approach i.e. beyond N-P-K

  24. What do we know? • Single organism biological control is well understood in specific cases • Suppression of disease by a complex community of microbes is much more complicated!

  25. Example: Pythium spp. (damping off) Post-emergence damping off [www.ipmimages.org]

  26. P. aphanidermatum germinating sporangium sporangium direct asexual zoosporangium zoospores indirect DISEASE vegetative hyphae Germinating oospore oogonium sexual antheridium oospore oogonium [modified from Matthews 1931]

  27. Mechanisms of biocontrol • Single organism: • Antibiosis • Competition for nutrients • Parasitism • Induced systemic resistance

  28. Zwittermicin A (antibiotic) Bacillus subtilis “Kodiak TM” Antibiosis Pythium zoospore Root surface [Shang et al. 1999]

  29. Linoleic acid Pythium sporangium Enterobacter cloacae Competition for nutrients Seed exudates Cucumber seed Linoleic acid Pythium sporangium [van Dijk and Nelson 2000]

  30. Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR) [Chen et al. 2000] Pseudomonas corrugata Pythium sporangium

  31. Parasitism www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/trichoderma

  32. Multiple organism biocontrol • Often associated with high microbial biomass and activity • Unclear which organisms are involved and how they interact with each other • Goal: • Understand how disease suppression works in a single system so we can make the practice more effective

  33. Liquid vermicompost extract Solid vermicompost • Soil drench applied when irrigating • Can provide comparative levels of suppression with 2000 x less compost • Can be freeze dried and reconstituted • Simple feedstock + process control = more consistent product • OMRI listed • Potting media amendment • 5-20% depending on crop

  34. Zoospore pre-infection events

  35. The Spermosphere cucumber seed Pythium zoospore Seed exudates

  36. 7d a 8h 7d a b 7d 8h 7d a b 7d 7d Non-inoculated a Pythium inoculation Shoot height (mm) 0 30 60 90 120 150 Sand Suppressive compost Seed Microbes [Chen & Nelson 2008] 7d

  37. Conclusions • Vermicomposts are: • a valuable component in organic potting media for nutrient management • cultural practice for suppressing disease • Scientific understanding is not at a level where we can make predictions for specific composts • Consider collaborating with regional researchers to further develop these practices

  38. Acknowledgements Nelson Lab: Mary Ann Karp Eric Carr Monica Minson Ellen Crocker Sarah Arnold Dave Moody Financial support: Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Microbe Biology USDA BARD Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines New York Farm Viability Institute NYSTAR Center for Advanced Technology & USDA SBIR Phase I & II (with Worm Power) Organic Farming Research Foundation Organic Crop Improvement Association Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship My committee: Eric Nelson (PPPMB) Anthony Hay (MICRO) AnuRangarajan (HORT) Kathie Hodge (PPPMB) Scott Peters (EDUC) Industry collaborator: Tom Herlihy Worm Power Kent Loeffler – photo credits SBIR Program

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