Vermicompost production and use for plant disease suppression

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Vermicompost production and use for plant disease
suppression

• Allison Jack
• Department of Plant Pathology
• Dr. Eric B. Nelson Laboratory Group
• CIIFAD seminar Nov 1, 2006

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Overview

• Vermicompost production
• Earthworms and microbes
• Types of systems
• Vermicompost end use
• Horticultural agricultural applications
• Disease suppression
• Current knowledge of biological control
• Single organism
• Multiple organism

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Liability Asset
Excess manure
Synthetic inputs
Dairy operation
Vegetable/ fruit grower


Environmental problem
Environmental problem
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Vermicompost production

• Waste management tool using earthworms and
  microbes

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Thermogenic compost definition
A. Jack

www.ars.usda.gov
A. Jack
CIWMB 2003
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Ecological types of bacteria based on temperature
preferences
Brock Biology of Microorganisms 10th Ed.
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Vermicompost definition

www.drcsc.org
Aira et al. 2002
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Thermogenic Compost
Thermophillic
I. Mesophilic
II. Thermophilic
III. Cooling
IV. Curing
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Mesophilic
Vermicompost
I. Acclimatization
II. Hydrolytic
III. Curing
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T (deg C)
Time
Jack and Thies 2006, Chefetz et al. 1996,
Benitez et al. 2000
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Feedstocks Source of Organic Matter

• International
• Animal manures Edwards Bater 1992
• Sewage sludge Eastman et al. 2001
• Food waste Frederickson et al. 1997
• Spain
• Paper mill sludge Elvira et al. 1996
• Latin America
• Coffee pulp Orozco et al. 1996, Aranda et al.
  1999
• India
• Coirpith Jeyabal and Kuppuswamy 2001
• Tannery effluent Lavanya and Venkatakrishnan
  1997
• Italy
• Dry olive cake Nogales et al. 1999

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www.infovisual.info
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food
Earthworm gut Eisenia fetida 2.5 hr
Mixing and grinding
CaCO3 added to neutralize acidity
Water secreted
Intestinal mucus secreted
Water and mucus reabsorbed
excrement
Brown et al. 2000, Hartenstein et al. 1981,
Sampedro et al. 2006
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Earthworms farm microbes
INPUT
microbes
Organic matter
OUTPUT
cast
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Cast

• Peritrophic membrane
• Coating of polysaccharides (mucus)

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The soil sleeping beauty paradox
Lavelle et al. 1995, Brown et al. 2000
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The external rumen for manure dwellers
INPUT
Decomposed ? more available nutrients
microbes
Organic matter
OUTPUT
cast
Swift 1979
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Other organisms involved
http//www.arachnology.org/
Pseudoscorpions
http//nema.cap.ed.ac.uk
Springtails (Collembola)
Pot worms (Enchytraeidae)
Nematodes
http//www.micrographia.com
http//www.blm.gov
R. Norton
http//www.blm.gov
Amoebae
Ciliated protozoa
Mites
Flagellated protozoa
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Vermicompost production

• Systems

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Systems

• Windrows
• Wedge (modified windrow)
• Beds
• Continuous flow through reactor

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Windrows
New Zealand

• US American Resource
• Recovery (California)
• 70 acres
• 75,000 tons/yr.

www.groworm.co.nz
Worm harvester
http//www.vermiculture.net/harves2.jpg
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Wedge SystemModified Windrows

• US Yelm Earthworm Farm (Washington)
• 30,000 square feet of indoor windrows

Waste
Harvest here
windrow
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Bed systems
England
Korea
http//journeytoforever.org/edu_compost.html
http//gnv.fdt.net/windle/neal/p3.jpg

• Difficult to harvest
• Problems with too much moisture and low
  temperatures

• 80 tons/day sewage sludge
• All harvesting done by hand with baskets and
  rakes (18 employees)

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Continuous Flow Through Reactors

• Dr. Clive Edwards at Rothampstead experimental
  station, UK 1970s

www.vermico.com
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Large Continuous Flow Through Reactors
Vermitech (AU)
Oregon Soil Corporation
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New facility Avon, NY
www.wormpower.net
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A. Jack
A. Jack
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A. Jack
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A. Jack
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Vermicompost end use

• Horticultural agricultural applications
• Disease suppression

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Methods of use

• Potting mix amendment
• Transplant establishment grape vines
• Living mulch
• Broadcast
• Compost tea foliar spray

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Disease suppression on tomato

• Phytophthora blight Szczech et al. 1993
• Fusarium wilt Szczech 1999
• Bacterial canker Utkhede 2004
• Root knot nematode Szczech et al. 1993

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Conclusions

• Vermicompost has disease suppressive properties

• BUT
• Suppression can vary depending on plant pathogen,
  feedstock, composting process and batch
• Will vermicompost be effective against multiple
  pathogens in the field?
• How can we predict which compost will be
  suppressive?

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Current Knowledge of Biocontrol

• Single organism
• Multiple organism

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What do we know about disease suppression?

• Single organism biocontrol
• Well studied, well understood
• Commercial products developed
• Multiple organism biocontrol
• Well studied, not as well understood

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Single organism biological control

• Pythium as model organism
• Types of interactions
• Antibiosis
• Competition
• Parasitism
• Induced Systemic Resistance

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Example Pythium spp. (damping off)
Post-emergence damping off
www.ipmimages.org
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Antibiosis
Pythium zoospore
Root surface
Shang et al. 1999
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Competition for nutrients
Seed exudates
Cucumber seed
Linoleic acid
Pythium sporangium
van Dijk and Nelson 2000
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Parasitism
www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/tr
ichoderma
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Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)
Chen et al. 2000
Pseudomonas corrugata
Pythium sporangium
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Multiple organism biocontrol

• Pythium as a model organism
• How do we predict suppression?
• Substrates
• Rockwool
• Soil
• Compost
• Compost tea

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Abiotic factors that correlate with Pythium
suppression

• High organic matter content
• Nanjappa et al. 2001
• Low level of peat decomposition
• Boehm et al. 1993
• Low level of Particulate Organic Matter (POM)
  decomposition
• Stone et al. 2001
• High level of cover crop decomposition
• Grunwald et al. 2000

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Biotic factors that correlate with Pythium
suppression

• High microbial biomass
• Van Os van Ginkel 2001
• Total biological activity
• Lumsden et al. 1987, Van Os van Ginkel 2001
• Ability to metabolize fatty acids
• McKellar Nelson 2003
• Actinomycetes
• Posma et al. 2000, McKellar Nelson 2003
• Pseudomonas spp.
• Lumsden et al. 1987

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Biotic factors that do not correlate with Pythium
suppression

• Total culturable bacteria
• Postma et al. 2000, Scheuerell Mahaffee 2005
• Ratio of total to active bacterial and fungal
  cells
• Scheuerell Mahaffee 2005
• PCR-DGGE molecular profile of microbial community
• Kowalchuck et al. 2003
• Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp.
• Postma et al. 2000

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Multiple Organism Biocontrol
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Questions

• How can we manage microbial communities in
  compost amendments to enhance plant and soil
  health?
• How can we produce consistently suppressive
  composts to meet growers needs?
• How can suppressiveness be predicted?
• We have to understand how it works!

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Seed colonizing microbes as a model for studying
suppression
Soil/Compost
Different species of bacteria
Cucumber seed
Cucumber seed
Seed-colonizing bacteria
cucumber
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Why study seed colonizing microbes?

• Suppression can be explained by looking at the
  microorganisms that have colonized the seed
  surface a few hours after sowing
• This is a greatly simplified community to work
  with compared to that of the whole compost

McKellar Nelson 2003
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Disease suppressive seed colonizing microbial
community
Disease conducive seed colonizing microbial
community
cucumber
cucumber
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Conclusions

• Vermicomposting is a relatively new tool for
  organic waste management
• Vermicompost possesses disease suppressive
  properties
• Single organism biocontrol is well understood
• Multiple organism biocontrol is not well
  understood
• Using the spermosphere as a model system we can
  begin to understand how suppression works and be
  able to predict if a compost will be suppressive

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Acknowledgements

• My PhD committee
• Eric Nelson (Plant Pathology)
• Scott Peters (Education)
• Anu Rangarajan (Horticulture)
• Anthony Hay (Microbiology)
• Kathi Hodge (Plant Pathology)
• Tom Herlihy (RTS)
• Jean Bonhotal (CWMI)
• Chuck Nicholson (AEM)
• Steffen

• My lab mates
• Mary Ann Karp
• Sofia Windstam
• Megan Ackerman
• Mei-Hsing Chen

K. Duhamel