Articles
SUPPRESSIVENESS OF FINNISH COMMERCIAL COMPOST AGAINST SOIL BORNE DISEASE
Article number
891_5
Pages
59 – 65
Language
English
Abstract
Compost can be considered as a soil conditioner that contributes to soil
fertility, structure, porosity, organic matter, water holding capacity, and suppression of soil borne disease in plants.
Disease suppression by composts is a fairly
recently established alternative use of composts.
The interest in suppressive
composts has increased due to concern over pesticide use, increasing pesticide
resistance, and lack of chemical control against disease or disease resistant plant cultivars.
We have carried out a study, the aim of which was to search for disease suppressiveness properties of commercial composts produced in Finland.
Twenty-one mature composts were screened for their ability to decrease strawberry crown rot caused by Phytophthora cactorum and cucumber wilt disease caused by Pythium sp.
The compost raw materials used included municipal sewage sludge, biowaste, cattle, horse or poultry manure, various kinds of garden wastes, and sludge from the paper mill industry.
The majority of composts seemed not to affect strawberry crown rot or cucumber wilt disease, but seven composts had dis-tinct suppressiveness capacities in both experiments.
Three composts were in common for both experiments.
One compost was conducive to disease in both experiments, but it was not the same one in both cases.
The results indicated that closed composting systems in tunnels or drums induced suppressiveness better than composting in windrows.
Preliminary observations also indicated that suppressiveness capacities were found more commonly in biowaste composts than in composts made from manure.
Further studies with several plant pathogens are needed in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the potential use of composts for controlling soil borne plant diseases.
Studies on underlying suppressiveness mechanisms, including microbial profiles of suppressive and non-suppressive composts, also need to be car-ried out.
fertility, structure, porosity, organic matter, water holding capacity, and suppression of soil borne disease in plants.
Disease suppression by composts is a fairly
recently established alternative use of composts.
The interest in suppressive
composts has increased due to concern over pesticide use, increasing pesticide
resistance, and lack of chemical control against disease or disease resistant plant cultivars.
We have carried out a study, the aim of which was to search for disease suppressiveness properties of commercial composts produced in Finland.
Twenty-one mature composts were screened for their ability to decrease strawberry crown rot caused by Phytophthora cactorum and cucumber wilt disease caused by Pythium sp.
The compost raw materials used included municipal sewage sludge, biowaste, cattle, horse or poultry manure, various kinds of garden wastes, and sludge from the paper mill industry.
The majority of composts seemed not to affect strawberry crown rot or cucumber wilt disease, but seven composts had dis-tinct suppressiveness capacities in both experiments.
Three composts were in common for both experiments.
One compost was conducive to disease in both experiments, but it was not the same one in both cases.
The results indicated that closed composting systems in tunnels or drums induced suppressiveness better than composting in windrows.
Preliminary observations also indicated that suppressiveness capacities were found more commonly in biowaste composts than in composts made from manure.
Further studies with several plant pathogens are needed in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the potential use of composts for controlling soil borne plant diseases.
Studies on underlying suppressiveness mechanisms, including microbial profiles of suppressive and non-suppressive composts, also need to be car-ried out.
Authors
M. Vestberg, S. Kukkonen, S. Rantala, P. Prochazka, S. Tuohimetsä, H. Setälä, M. Romantschuk, J. Kurola, D. Yu, P. Parikka
Keywords
biowaste, compost, cucumber wilt disease, Phytophthora, Pythium, sewage sludge compost, strawberry crown rot, suppressiveness capacity
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