Efficacy of vermicompost amended and bacterial diversity on plant growth and pathogen control

Authors

• Raghda M. Zuhair * ¹
• Abdel Naeim I. Al-Assiuty ¹
• Mohamed A. Khalil ¹
• Wesam M. Salama ¹

• Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

Abstract

Purpose Organic solid wastes contain tremendous amounts of nutrients and beneficial microbes that cause environmental problems, such as pollution and shortage of dumping sites. Vermicomposting, considered as one of the most suitable stabilization and mass reduction methods, has been recognized for biowastes. This study aimed to evaluate the microbial diversity and analyze the ability of vermicompost produced from poultry litter, household, and guano of both insectivorous and frugivorous bats to reduce root-knot nematode’s infection.
Method The assessment of microbial diversity was carried out by amplification of 16s rRNA gene in bacteria habitant in vermicomposit . Nitrogen content, organic carbon constituent and heavy metal concentration were evaluated.
Results The results obtained showed that organic matter ranged between 27.6% to 35.2%, while, C/N ratio was2.9 to 5.5 in the amended vermicomposite. Also,  there is a remarkable reduction in root-knot nematode infection after vermicopositing with organic wastes. Interstingly, the obtained bacterial species were Archangium gephyra, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Clostridium ultunense, Azospirillum sp. and Bacillus sp in biowastes.
Conclusion According to these results, the produced vermicompost from different biodegradable wastes possesses bacterial diversity, lowers heavy metals’ concentration, enhances plant growth parameter, and increases plant resistance against nematode infection.

Highlights

• Organic solid wastes are considered as a serious dilemma.
• The focus is on the microbial community and nutrients content in vermicompost.
• There are strong needs to move toward organic practices to protect environment.
• Bio-approaches are considered as an import way toward a green production and plant pathogen control such as root knot nematode.
• Vermicompost harnessing as a diverse microbial community which had adverse effect on vermicompost quality improving biocontrol characters on nematode infection.
• The produced vermicompost from different biodegradable wastes possesses bacterial diversity, lowers heavy metals concentration, enhances plant growth parameter, and increases plant resistance against nematode infection.

Keywords

• Bio fertilizers
• Plant growth
• Root-knot nematodes
• Vermicompost
• Bacterial biodiversity