Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production:

Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression

Allison L H JackDr. Eric B. Nelson’s Laboratory Group

Long Island Ag Forum 1-14-10

Overview

1. What is vermicompost?2. Nutrient management3. Disease suppression4. Conclusions and future directions

1. What is vermicompost?

Liability Asset

Dairy operationVegetable/ fruit

grower

$

Excess manure: Synthetic inputs:

$

Environmentalproblem

$

Environmentalproblem

Vermicompost and sustainable agriculture

Thermophilic compost

• Static aerated (indoor)• Windrows (outdoor)• 6-9 months curing• Relies primarily on action

of microbes

Vermicompost

• Usually follows a hot composting step

• Worm beds (indoor)• Windrows (outdoor)• Entire process: ~70 days

Earthworms “farm” microbes

microbesOrganicmatter

INPUT

cast

OUTPUT

Decomposed more available nutrients

[Swift 1979]

The soil ‘sleeping beauty paradox’

[Lavelle et al. 1995, Brown et al. 2000]

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

2. Nutrient management

Factors affecting growth media performance

• Nutrient levels– Plant availability – slow release

• Electrical conductivity [EC] (salts)• Water holding capacity – drainage• Phytotoxicity – germination• pH• ‘Wetability’

Organic tomato trialsSUN Industry standard: peat-based potting mix

with turkey litter compost & blood meal

BASE Negative control: 70:30 (v:v) mixture of sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite

TC Composted dairy manure solids (20%v/v)RT Solutions

VC Vermicomposted dairy manure solids (20% v/v)RT Solutions

SM1 Sesame meal (1% v/v)

SM2.5 Sesame meal (2.5% v/v)

AM5 Alfalfa meal (5%)

[Jack, Sooksa-Nguan, Culman, Rangarajan, Thies in press]

Chemical characteristics

Media pHEC

dS m-1N%

NO3-N mg kg-1

NH4- N mg kg-1

Pmg kg-1

K mg kg-1

Organic C % C:N

BASE SUN TC05 VC05 AM5 SM1 SM2.5

7.06.07.16.76.16.56.4

0.680.951.431.864.020.740.75

0.640.731.211.331.421.261.91

38 361 67

721 13

213 169

9296 60 92 89 75 79

42220997779686543

1,259

642 322

3,989 2,462

10,805 1,004 1,551

35.733.330.832.533.029.332.2

55.645.825.424.423.323.316.9

In GH At Transplanting Mid-season

Media Percent germination

Fresh Wt g plant-1

Dry Wt g plant-1

Fresh Wtg plant-1

Dry Wt g plant-1

BASESUNTC05VC05AM5SM1

SM2.5

96 a95 a96 a96 a60 b95 a91 a

0.13 e1.52 d0.74 e2.32 c2.44 bc3.17 ab3.89 a

0.02 e0.23 d0.11 e0.37 ab0.27 cd0.43 a0.33 bc

115 f561 e615 de738 bc693 cd819 b969 a

12 e58 d62 d77 bc72 c83 b101 a

Media

Early yield (ha-1) Marketable yield (ha-1)

Fruit #1000’s

Yield MT Av. Fruit Wt g

 Fruit #1000’s

Yield MT

Av. Fruit Wt g

BASESUNTCVCAM5SM1SM2.5

9.16 d 85.79 bc 69.06 c119.67 a102.84 ab112.41 ab117.07 a

2.66 d22.91 bc19.67 c33.32 a 26.83 abc28.62 ab30.17 ab

285 a252 bc257 b255 bc242 cd232 d232 d

116.4 c288.1 ab284.0 b332.7 ab315.4 ab340.1 a 330.1 ab

32.8 b 72.7 a72.9 a84.6 a76.2 a79.0 a76.7 a

285 a252 bc257 b255 bc242 cd232 d232 d

Transplant biomass & yield

Soluble nutrients can leach

20% Vermicompost20% Vermicompost

& fish emulsion

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]

Cabbage trials

• Organic materials rely on microbial activity to mineralize nutrients and make them plant available - results are temperature sensitive

Control Blood meal 10% VC

10% VC& BM

[Rangarajan, Leonard & Jack, ongoing]

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

2008

Aerated compost extract

• Expensive equipment ($20,000)

• No shelf life• Additives needed

• Cheap equipment ($250)• Long shelf life• No additives needed

Non-aerated compost extract

sump

[Elzinga Hoeksema Nurseries, MI]

100 gallon tubTimerSump pump(circulates 2x a day)

Nutrient NVEScott’s 20-10-20

Units100 ppm N 200 ppm Nammonium N 2.600 40 80 ppmnitrate N 13.313 60 120 ppmP 66.667 22 44 ppmK 293.333 83 166 ppmCa 46.667 0 0 ppmMg 10.000 0.75 1.5 ppmS 20.000 0 0 ppmNa 56.117 0 0 ppmAl 2.663 0 0 ppmFe 7.613 0.25 0.5 ppmMn 0.267 0.125 0.25 ppmCu 0.703 0.0625 0.125 ppmZn 1.147 0.125 0.25 ppmB 0.0625 0.125 ppmMo 0.025 0.05 ppm

[with N. Mattson]

3. Disease suppression

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

Crop Pathogen

tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Phytophthora nicotianae var. nicotianae

tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici

cabbage (Brassica oleracea cv. 'Ditmarska') Plasmodiophora brassicae

tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. 'Remiz')

Phytophthora nicotianae var. nicotianae

tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. 'Remiz')

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici

chickpea (Cicer arietinum cv. ‘Avrodhi’) Sclerotium rolfsii

cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv. "Marketmore 76')

Pythium irregularePythium ultimum

cabbage (Brassica oleracea cv. 'Cheers') Rhizoctonia solanitomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Nacobbus aberrans

[Jack in press]

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

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!

Example: Pythium spp. (damping off)

Post-emergence damping off

[www.ipmimages.org]

A. Jack Cornell University 2008

vegetative hyphae

sporangium

germinating sporangium

zoosporangium zoospores

antheridium

oogonium

oogonium oospore

Germinatingoospore

asexual

sexual

direct

indirect

DISEASE

[modified from Matthews 1931]

P. aphanidermatum

Mechanisms of biocontrol

• Single organism: – Antibiosis– Competition for nutrients– Parasitism– Induced systemic resistance

Antibiosis

Root surface Bacillus subtilis“Kodiak TM”

Zwittermicin A (antibiotic)

[Shang et al. 1999]

Pythium zoospore

Competition for nutrients

Seed exudates

Cucumber seed

Linoleic acid

Pythium sporangium

[van Dijk and Nelson 2000]

Enterobacter cloacae

Linoleic acid

Pythium sporangium

Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)

Pseudomonas corrugata Pythium

sporangium

[Chen et al. 2000]

Parasitism

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

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

Solid vermicompost

• Simple feedstock + process control = more consistent product

• OMRI listed• Potting media

amendment– 5-20% depending on crop

Liquid vermicompost extract

• Soil drench applied when irrigating

• Can provide comparative levels of suppression with 2000 x less compost

• Can be freeze dried and reconstituted

Zoospore pre-infection events

A. Jack Cornell University 2008

The Spermosphere

Pythiumzoospore

cucumber seed

Seed exudates

Shoot height (mm)

0 30 60 90 120 150

[Chen & Nelson 2008]

Pythiuminoculation

Sand Suppressive compost

a7d

a8h 7d

b8h 7d

b7d

Non-inoculated a7d

Seed Microbes

a7d

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

Acknowledgements

Nelson Lab:Mary Ann KarpEric CarrMonica MinsonEllen CrockerSarah ArnoldDave Moody

My committee:Eric Nelson (PPPMB)Anthony Hay (MICRO)Anu Rangarajan (HORT)Kathie Hodge (PPPMB)Scott Peters (EDUC)

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

Kent Loeffler – photo credits

SBIR Program

Industry collaborator: Tom Herlihy Worm Power