effect of food waste compost on microbial population, soil enzyme activity and lettuce growth

Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 21–28

Effect of food waste compost on microbial population,soil enzyme activity and lettuce growth

Jae-Jung Lee a, Ro-Dong Park a, Yong-Woong Kim a, Jae-Han Shim a,Dong-Hyun Chae a, Yo-Sup Rim b, Bo-Kyoon Sohn b, Tae-Hwan Kim c,

Kil-Yong Kim a,*

a Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Biotechnology, APSRC, College of Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757,

South Koreab Department of Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Sunchon National University, Sunchon 540-742, South Korea

c Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, South Korea

Received 2 May 2002; received in revised form 29 January 2003; accepted 20 October 2003

Abstract

The effect of food waste (FW) composted with MS� (Miraculous Soil Microorganisms) was compared with commercial compost

(CC) and mineral fertilizer (MF) on bacterial and fungal populations, soil enzyme activities and growth of lettuce in a greenhouse.

Populations of fungi and bacteria, soil biomass, and soil enzyme activities in the rhizosphere of FW treatments significantly in-

creased compared to control (CON), CC and MF treatments at 2, 4, and 6 weeks. The fresh weight of lettuce in FW treatments was

about 2–3 times higher than that in CC at 4 and 6 week. The pH, EC, total nitrogen content, organic matter and sodium con-

centration in FW treatments were generally higher than those in CON, CC and MF treatments.

� 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Soil biomass; Soil enzyme activities; Food waste compost; Lettuce

1. Introduction

In Korea, an abundant food culture has resulted in

production of large amounts of food wastes corre-

sponding to approximately 40% of the total amount of

garbage produced every year (Rogoshewski et al., 1983).

Food wastes produced have mainly been dumped in

landfill sites or burnt. When they are buried, landfill of

food wastes have created various problems such as pu-trid smell and contaminated ground and surface water

(Yun et al., 2000). The disposal of waste by incineration

has been avoided due to the enormous costs of con-

struction and working of incineration facilities and

environmental problems like discharge of harmful gas

and toxic ashes.

To solve these problems, composting or animal feed

of the food waste has been recommended. In the case ofanimal feed, it is difficult not only to remove harmful

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-62-530-2138/3138; fax: +82-62-

530-2139.

E-mail address: [email protected] (K.-Y. Kim).

0960-8524/$ - see front matter � 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2003.10.009

material from the food waste for livestock, but also tokeep the wastes from decaying during transportation

and storage. Therefore, food wastes have increasingly

been used as compost because of their high organic

matter content and low heavy metals (Yang et al., 1998).

The application of fresh organic matter to the soil is

to be avoided because it results in a change in the eco-

system where a crop is developing. Once fresh organic

matter is placed in soil, it will be degraded by the soilmicroflora, which results in the production of interme-

diate metabolites. Some of these intermediates are not

compatible with normal plant growth (Yang, 1997). The

principal requirement of a compost for safe application

in soil is its degree of stability or maturity, which implies

a stable organic matter content, and the absence of

phytotoxic compounds and plant or animal pathogens

(Bernal et al., 1998; Matsuda et al., 1996; Gomez, 1998).There has been much discussion on the effect of or-

ganic fertilizer and waste compost from pig manure

(Weon et al., 1999; Wong et al., 1999), and sewage

sludge (Aggelides and Londra, 2000; Brendecke et al.,

1993) on soil properties and crop quality as well as

mail to: [email protected]

22 J.-J. Lee et al. / Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 21–28

optimum application rate. However, little research

has been done on the effect of food waste in relation to

soil microbial population, enzyme activity, and plant

growth.

The objective of this study was to examine the effect

of food waste compost on change in soil microbial

population, soil enzyme activity and lettuce growth in

relation to sodium content and nutrient release fromcompost in soil environment.

2. Methods

2.1. Plant growth

Lettuce (Lactura satira) seeds were placed in multicell

flats (plug trays) filled with the medium (25 g for each

cell), germinated and raised in a greenhouse. The nurs-ery medium was purchased from Hungnong Seeds Co.

Ltd., Korea. Three weeks after planting, lettuce seed-

lings were transplanted to pots containing 4 kg of soil

amended with mineral fertilizer, commercial compost,

or food waste compost. Every two weeks after trans-

planting, plant growth characteristics, microbial popu-

lations and enzyme activities were analyzed. In this

study, treatments were as follows: MF (mineral fertil-izer: N 15 kg, P2O5 8.85 kg, K2O 9.6 kg/10a); CC (com-

mercial compost: 1800 kg/10a); FW0.5 (food waste

composted with MS�: 900 kg/10a); FW1.0 (food waste

composted with MS�: 1800 kg/10a), FW1.5 (food

waste composted with MS�: 2700 kg/10a), and CON

(control). The commercial compost was purchased from

Samwha Vermiculite Co. Ltd., Korea. The commercial

compost was comprised of 30% animal slurry, 30% plantresidue, 30% sawdust, and 10% vermiculite, which was

composted aerobically for four months. The food waste

compost was prepared in our laboratory as follows. One

hundred kilograms of fresh food waste was gathered

from restaurants, mixed with 0.5 kg of Miraculous Soil

Microorganisms (MS�, Korea Miraculous Soil Micro-

organism Research Institute, Jangseong, Korea) and

then composted aerobically for one year. The chemicalproperties of nursery medium, and commercial and food

waste compost are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Chemical properties of nursery medium, commercial and food waste compo

Treatment T–N (%) OM (%) C/N K

NM 0.30 29.5 56.75 6

FW 3.78 56.8 12.02 3

CC 0.67 25.4 37.56 6

NM: nursery medium; FW: food waste compost; CC: commercial compost.

2.2. Microbial population in rhizosphere of lettuce

Microbial population of the rhizosphere soil was

enumerated by the soil dilution plate method (Wollum,

1982). Tryptic soy agar and rose bengal agar were used

for bacteria and fungi counts, respectively. To suppress

fungi, cycloheximide (50 ppm) was add to tryptic soy

agar, and rose bengal agar was supplemented withstreptomycin (30 ppm) to inhibit bacterial growth.

2.3. Microbial biomass in rhizosphere of lettuce

The equivalent of 20 g of soil was placed into a 120 ml

cup and adjusted to 30% moisture on a dry weight base.Samples were either fumigated with CHCl3 under vac-

uum in the dark at 25 �C for 24 h or were not fumigated.

After this period, chloroform contained in the soil was

removed by repeated evacuation. Fumigated soil was

inoculated with 1 g of moist unfumigated soil and mixed

well. A 5 ml vial containing 1 ml of 2 N NaOH was

placed in each beaker containing a soil sample. The

beakers were sealed and then incubated for 10 days at 25�C. Soil microbial C was calculated as the difference

between the C content of fumigated and unfumigated

samples with a mineralization constant (kc) of 0.41

(Parkinson and Paul, 1982).

2.4. Phosphatase and dehydrogenase activity

One gram of soil sample was placed in a 50 ml

erlenmeyer flask, to which 0.2 ml toluene and 4 ml

modified universal buffer (MUB) solution (pH 6.5 for

acid phosphatase or pH 11 for alkaline phosphatase)

were added. One ml of 0.025 M p-nitrophenyl phosphatesolution was added, mixed well and the flask was sealed

tightly. The mixture was incubated at 37 �C for 1 h.After this period, 1 ml of 0.5 M CaCl2 and 4 ml of 0.5 M

NaOH were added and the solution was mixed thor-

oughly. The mixture was filtered through a Whatman

No. 2. The yellow color intensity of the filtrate was

measured with a spectrophotometer at 410 nm (Taba-

tabai, 1982). For dehydrogenase activity, 20 g of air-

dried soil and 0.2 g of CaCO3 were mixed. Six grams of

this mixture was placed in each of three test tubes. Oneml of 3% aqueous solution of TTC (2,3,5-triphenyltet-

razolium) and 2.5 ml of distilled water were added to

st

(g kg�1) Ca (g kg�1) Mg (g kg�1) Na (g kg�1)

.04 14.78 9.73 3.74

.23 52.35 2.64 5.24

.95 39.64 45.47 1.19

J.-J. Lee et al. / Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 21–28 23

each tube and the contents were mixed well with a glass

rod. The tube was sealed tightly, and incubated at 37 �Cfor 24 h. Ten milliliters of methanol was added and

shaken for 1 min. The suspension was filtered through a

glass funnel plugged with absorbent cotton into 100 ml

volumetric flask. The soil transferred to the funnel was

washed with methanol until the reddish color disap-

peared from the cotton plug. Dehydrogenase activitywas determined using a spectrophotometer at 485 nm

(Tabatabai, 1982).

2.5. Analysis of soils

Total nitrogen content in soil was determined by

sulphuric acid digestion using CuSO4 and K2SO4 as

catalyst. The soil organic matter was determined by

oxidation with potassium dichromate. The pH and

electrical conductivity (EC) were measured in a 1:5

(soil:water) aqueous extract. Inorganic ions were deter-

mined using ICP. Available phosphorous was deter-mined colorimetrically by the Olsen method (Olsen and

Sommers, 1982). The soil (silty clay) used for planting

was collected from a wheat field at Agricultural Exten-

sion Station in Chonnam National University, South

Korea. The soil had a pH (1:5 H2O) of 6.13, electrical

conductivity (dS/m) of 0.2, organic matter of 0.9%, total

N of 0.3%, available P2O5 of 21.85 lg/g soil, CEC of

9.94 cmolþ/kg, Ca of 3.12 cmolþ/kg, Mg of 1.85 cmolþ/kg, and K of 0.34 cmolþ/kg.

2.6. Statistical analysis

Analysis of variance was performed using the SAS

version 6.05. The least significant differences (LSD)

among mean values were calculated at P < 0:05 confi-

dence level.

4.00

4.50

5.00

5.50

6.00

6.50

7.00

7.50

CON CC MF

Log

CFU

g-1

soi

l

g

d

e

fgefef

fg

eef

2 weeks4 weeks6 weeks

Fig. 1. Population of fungi in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by co

of food waste compost (FW0.5, FW1.0, FW1.5). Means with the same letter

Treatment means are the average of three replicates.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Microbial populations and soil biomass

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, populations of fungi and

bacteria in the rhizospheres of FW treatments (FW0.5,

FW1.0 and FW1.5) were significantly higher than those

in CON, CC and MF treatments at 2, 4, 6 weeks aftertransplanting. The populations of fungi in FW treat-

ments were about 30–500 times higher than those in

CON, CC and MF treatments throughout the growing

period. There was no significant different in fungal

population among FW treatments although it was

slightly low in FW0.5 and FW1.0 at 4 weeks. The

population of bacteria in FW treatments at 2, 4, 6 weeks

was about 5–400 times higher than those in CON, CCand MF treatments and the highest population of bac-

teria was observed in FW1.0 and FW1.5 at 6 weeks. Soil

biomass in FW treatments was generally higher than

that in CON, CC and MF treatments at 2, 4, 6 weeks

(Fig. 3). The highest biomass was found in FW1.5 at 4

weeks.

It is known that organic matter introduced to soil

stimulates soil microbial populations and soil biologicalactivity (Brady and Weil, 1999). Alvarez et al. (1995)

reported that addition of compost to soil increased the

incidence of bacteria in the tomato rhizosphere. Weon

et al. (1999) found that the number of colony forming

units of bacteria and fungi increased when pig manure

compost was added to soil. Increased soil biological

activity and microbial growth were also reported when

vermicompost or sewage sludge was added, where sew-age enhanced soil microbial biomass by 8–28% (Hassan,

1996; Marinari et al., 2000).

Pascual et al. (1999) found that the organic fraction

of food waste compost was mostly comprised of the

remains of fruit and vegetables with high carbohydrate

content and it was easily used as carbon and energy

FW0.5 FW1.0 FW1.5

abc aa

c bc

aab ab

a

mmercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different amounts

(s) are not significantly different at p < 0:05 when compared by LSD.

6.00

6.50

7.00

7.50

8.00

8.50

9.00

9.50

CON CC MF FW0.5 FW1.0 FW1.5

Log

CFU

g-1

soi

l


g

d

fg

c c

b

g

deef

cbc

b

fgefef

bc

aa

Fig. 2. Population of bacteria in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different

amounts of food waste compost (FW0.5, FW1.0, FW1.5). Means with the same letter(s) are not significantly different at p < 0:05 when compared by

LSD. Treatment means are the average of three replicates.

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

1.10


mg

C g

-1 s

oil


i

hi

fgh efgh

defcde

gh

efgdef

c

aba

fgh

def

cdc

b ab

Fig. 3. Microbial biomass in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different amounts

of food waste compost (FW0.5, FW1.0, FW1.5). Means with the same letter(s) are not significantly different at p < 0:05 when compared by LSD.

Treatment means are the average of three replicates.


source by microorganisms. As shown in Table 1, food

waste compost contained not only a high carbon content

but also a high nitrogen content. The carbon and

nitrogen in food waste compost could be easily used as

energy and nutrient source for soil microorganisms, and

this resulted in increased soil microbial populations and

soil biomass (Figs. 1–3). These are in the agreement with

results obtained by Goyal et al. (1992) and Hassan(1996) that the addition of organic amendments in-

creased microbial biomass and resulted in a positive

correlation between microbial biomass C and soil

microbial populations.

3.2. Soil enzyme activity

As shown in Figs. 4–6, the food waste compostintroduced to soil significantly increased soil enzyme

activities compared to CON, CC and MF treatments at

2, 4, 6 weeks. Acid phosphatase activity in FW treat-

ments (FW0.5, FW1.0 and FW1.5) was 289–355 lg p-nitrophenol g�1 soil h�1 at 2 weeks, and then reduced to

190–232 lg p-nitrophenol g�1 soil h�1 at 4 weeks (Fig. 4).

However, acid phosphatase activity in CON, CC and

MF treatments was only 26–69 lg p-nitrophenolg�1 soil h�1 throughout the growing period. Alkaline

phosphatase activity in FW treatments was significantly

higher than that in CON, CC and MF treatments.Alkaline phosphatase activity in FW treatments was

correlated with applied amounts of food waste compost

at 2, 4, 6 weeks, and the highest activity was shown in

FW1.5 at 4 weeks (Fig. 5). However, alkaline phos-

phatase in CON, CC and MF treatments during the

growing season showed an almost constant activity of

near zero. Dehydrogenase activity in the rhizosphere of

all FW treatments was also significantly higher than thatin CON, CC and MF treatments at 2, 4, 6 weeks (Fig.

6). Dehydrogenase activity in FW treatments generally

increased with time.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500



g gg

e

c

b

g gg

ef

c

a

g ggf

d

b

µg

-nitr

op

he

no

l g-1

soi

l h-1

ρ

Fig. 5. Alkaline phosphatase activity in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different

amounts of food waste compost (FW0.5, FW1.0 and FW1.5). Means with the same letter(s) are not significantly different at p < 0:05 when compared

by LSD. Treatment means are the average of three replicates.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400



fff

bc

aba

fff

ede

de

f

ff

e

cd

bc

µg

-nitr

op

he

no

l g-1

soi

l h-1

ρ

Fig. 4. Acid phosphatase activity in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different



0

2

4

6

8

10

12


TPF

g-1 s

oil h

-1


gfg

efg

d

b

ab

g

eef

cd

aba

efg

eef

c

aba

µg

Fig. 6. Dehydrogenase activity in rhizospheres of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different





It is believed that most soil enzymes originate from

soil fungi, bacteria, and plant roots (Tarafdar et al.,

1988; Brown, 1973). Soil enzymes produced play a sig-

nificant role in mediating biochemical transformations

involving organic residue decomposition and nutrient

cycling in soil (McLatchey and Reddy, 1998; Martens

et al., 1992). Martens et al. (1992) reported that addition

of the organic matter maintained high levels of phos-phatase activity in soil during a long term study. Gius-

quiani et al. (1994) reported that posphatase activities

increased when compost was added at rates of up to

90 t ha�1 and the phosphatases continued to show a lin-

ear increase with compost rates of up to 270 t ha�1 in a

field experiment. As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, acid and

alkaline phosphatase generally increased with an increase

in the rate of food waste compost application. Increasedphosphatase activity could be responsible for hydrolysis

of organically bound phosphate into free ions, which

were taken up by plants. Tarafdar and Jungk (1987) re-

ported that plants can utilize organic P fractions from the

soil bymeans of phosphatase activity enriched in the soil–

root interface. Reddy et al. (1987) reported that due to

the reactions of phosphatase, H2PO�4 was made available

to plants from organic substances in soils.Soil dehydrogenase activity reflects the total range of

oxidative activity of soil microflora and it is conse-

quently used as an indicator of microbial activity.

Marinari et al. (2000) reported that a higher level of

dehydrogenase activity was observed in soil treated with

vermicompost and manure compared to soil treated

with mineral fertilizer. Perucci (1992) reported the

application of compost caused a significant increase indehydrogenase activity. The enzyme activity in organic

amendment soil increased by an average 2–4-fold com-

pared with the unamended soil (Martens et al., 1992).

These results were similar to our finding that dehydro-

genase in rhizosphere soil of FW treatments was an

average 4–20 times higher than that of unamended

(CON) and mineral fertilizer (MF) treatments.

ihi

gh

i

gh

f

i

gh

c

0

50

100

150

200

250

CON CC MF

g pl

ant-1


Fig. 7. Fresh weight of lettuce in pots as affected by commercial compost (CC

(FW0.5, FW1.0 and FW1.5). Means with the same letter(s) are not significan

the average of three replicates.

3.3. Plant growth

There was no significant difference in the fresh weight

of lettuce among CC, MF, FW0.5 and FW1.0 at 2

weeks; however, FW1.5 showed significantly higher

fresh weight than CON and CC treatments (Fig. 7). At 4

weeks, the fresh weight of lettuce was 81–119 g plant�1

in MF and FW treatments, which was about 2–3 timeshigher than compared to CC. At 6 weeks, the fresh

weight in MF and FW treatments was also significantly

higher than that in CON and CC, where the highest

fresh weight was observed in FW1.5. Alvarez et al.

(1995) reported that plant growth significantly increased

compared to control plants when manure compost was

added to soil. Wong et al. (1999) reported that addition

of manure compost increased total organic matter,macronutrient and micronutrient in the amended soil

according to the rate of compost application. As shown

in Table 2, the highest total nitrogen content, organic

matter, and available phosphorus concentrations were

found in FW1.5 treatment, which possibly increased

soil microbial activity and plant growth.

It is known that a high value of EC can interfere with

plant growth (Lee et al., 2000). The value of EC inFW1.5 was 3.37 dSm�1 and the highest among the

treatments. The highest value was mainly due to Na

content in food waste, which was not so high as to

disturb the growth of plants (Table 1 and Fig. 7). High

sodium content in food waste compost in Korea due to

salt favored cooking has been considered another

problem for application into soil. ESP (exchangeable

sodium percentage) has been used as the parameter ofestimation of Naþ accumulation in relation to that

affecting plant growth. When ESP value is over 15, the

soil is defined as sodic soil, which inhibits plant growth

(US Salinity Laboratory Staff, 1954). The sodium con-

centration in FW1.5 treatment at 6 weeks was 0.75

cmolþ kg�1 (Table 2). This is equal to a 7.2 ESP value,

which is not considered sodic to inhibit plant growth.

gh gh g

e efd

cd

b

a

FW0.5 FW1.0 FW1.5

), mineral fertilizer (MF), and different amounts of food waste compost

tly different at p < 0:05 when compared by LSD. Treatment means are

Table 2

Chemical properties of soil at 6 weeks after planting

Treatments pH (1:5 H2O) EC (dSm�1) T–N (%) OM (%) Av P2O5 (mgkg�1) Na (cmol kg�1)

CON 6.32 0.34 0.019 0.29 23.4 0.15

CC 5.98 0.96 0.037 0.57 59.9 0.10

MF 5.42 0.93 0.049 0.36 43.7 0.12

FW0.5 6.39 1.12 0.056 0.47 28.1 0.28

FW1.0 6.68 2.66 0.081 0.83 44.1 0.61

FW1.5 7.08 3.37 0.114 1.07 65.0 0.75

LSD (5%) 0.12 0.33 0.017 0.12 6.5 0.18

Means were separated using an LSD at p < 0:05.


In conclusion, food waste compost could be an

alternative to chemical fertilizer to increase soil micro-

bial populations and enzyme activities, and to promote

the soil nutrient for lettuce growth.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by Technology

Development Program for Agriculture and Forestry,

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and by Korea

Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through

the Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center at Chon-

nam National University, Republic of Korea.

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