Physico-Chemical Characterization and Biological Activities of a Digestate and a More Stabilized Digestate-Derived Compost from Agro-Waste.

The excessive use of agricultural soils and the reduction in their organic matter, following circular economy and environmental sustainability concepts, determined a strong attention in considering composting as a preferred method for municipalities and industries to recycle organic by-products. Microorganisms degrade organic matter for producing CO2, water and energy, originating stable humus named compost. The current study analyzed the chemical composition of a cow slurry on-farm digestate and a more stabilized digestate-derived compost (DdC), along with their phytotoxic, genotoxic and antifungal activities. The chemical analysis showed that digestate cannot be an ideal amendment due to some non-acceptable characteristics. Biological assays showed that the digestate had phytotoxicity on the tested plants, whereas DdC did not induce a phytotoxic effect in both plants at the lowest dilution; hence, the latter was considered in subsequent analyses. The digestate and DdC induced significant antifungal activity against some tested fungi. DdC did not show genotoxic effect on Vicia faba using a micronuclei test. Soil treated with DdC (5 and 10%) induced damping-off suppression caused by Fusarium solani in tomato plants. The eco-physiological data indicated that DdC at 5-10% could increase the growth of tomato plants. In conclusion, DdC is eligible as a soil amendment and to strengthen the natural soil suppressiveness against F. solani.

Citation

Antonella Vitti, Hazem S Elshafie, Giuseppina Logozzo, Stefania Marzario, Antonio Scopa, Ippolito Camele, Maria Nuzzaci. Physico-Chemical Characterization and Biological Activities of a Digestate and a More Stabilized Digestate-Derived Compost from Agro-Waste. Plants (Basel, Switzerland). 2021 Feb 18;10(2)

PMID: 33670466

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