Acidification of composts versus woody management residues: Optimizing biological and chemical characteristics for a better fit in growing media

Vandecasteele, Bart; Pot, Steffi; Maenhout, Kristof; Delcour, Ilse; Vancampenhout, Karen; Debode, Jane

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111444

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The microbial communities and related characteristics in growing media depend strongly on the type and composition of the materials in the horticultural substrate [13][14][15]. New materials in growing media (compost, wood or plant fibers) may support a higher microbial biomass, but they also have a higher microbial activity than peat, which leads to reduced stability [1,4]. The use of peat alternatives may require sanitary pre-treatments such as steaming, acidification or the thermal phase during composting to ensure sufficient control of weeds, pathogens and diseases [11,16].…”

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of peat alternatives may require sanitary pre-treatments such as steaming, acidification or the thermal phase during composting to ensure sufficient control of weeds, pathogens and diseases [11,16]. The microbiological activity of substrates is important for stability [4] as well as for the contribution of nitrifying bacteria to nitrification [17] and the control of plant pathogens in the root environment [13]. The positive effects of alternative materials are related to their higher microbial biomass and activity, including the intended acidification of materials or blends with elemental S [4,18], the stimulation of nitrification and the related decrease in pH [19] and disease suppression [5].…”

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The microbiological activity of substrates is important for stability [4] as well as for the contribution of nitrifying bacteria to nitrification [17] and the control of plant pathogens in the root environment [13]. The positive effects of alternative materials are related to their higher microbial biomass and activity, including the intended acidification of materials or blends with elemental S [4,18], the stimulation of nitrification and the related decrease in pH [19] and disease suppression [5]. However, the effect of this microbial activity in alternatives for peat and coir is not straightforward, as unwanted effects may occur due to lower stability or N drawdown.…”

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The alternatives, namely bark and wood fiber, share many of the characteristics of coir and peat, apart from their lower water holding capacity and thus their larger air capacity [3]. When choosing composts, compost-specific characteristics strongly influence their potential as fertilizer [3] or liming agents [4]; their usefulness in growing media as a bulk replacer of peat and/or coir [4]; their capacity for disease suppression [5]; whether they can act as a carrier for biocontrol organisms [6]; and their net N release [7]. Biochar is a relatively new alternative bulk replacement for coir and peat in growing media [3,8,9].…”

Section: Introduction 1new Materials In Growing Media Blendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Sustainable Growing Media Blends with Woody Green Composts: Optimizing the N Release with Organic Fertilizers and Interaction with Microbial Biomass

Vandecasteele¹,

Loo²,

Ommeslag³

et al. 2022

Agronomy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of the current study was to create a high quality growing medium blend that replaces 70 vol% peat with 40 vol% woody green compost and 30 vol% bark compost and organic fertilizers (i.e., blood meal and chitin), all locally sourced. A range of “woody composts”, i.e., green composts based on feedstock selection with mainly woody material from tree prunings, were produced for this purpose at green compost facilities. First, the woody composts were characterized chemically and biologically, including their microbial biomass and net N release. In comparison with regular green composts or vegetable, fruit and garden (VFG) waste composts, woody composts are more suitable for use in growing media due to their lower pH, EC and inorganic C content; however, the woody compost had a low N mineralization rate. Three types of composts supported a higher microbial biomass than wood fiber or bark compost. The additional mineral N release after 100 days for compost mixed with blood meal was tested for different VFG and green composts. A significantly higher additional net N release was measured for composts with higher initial mineral N concentrations (317 mg Nmin/L) as well as VFG composts (417 mg Nmin/L) than for green composts with a lower initial mineral N concentration (148 mg Nmin/L). In a last step, woody compost, bark compost, wood fiber, coir and peat were mixed in different ratios, resulting in six blends ranging from 100% peat-free to100% peat. Two batches of woody compost were compared, and the blends were mixed with blood meal or chitin. A strong effect of both the organic fertilizer and the blend composition on the mineral N release was observed, with a clear link between the microbial biomass and the net N release. There was a significant negative correlation between the net change in microbial biomass and the net N release (R = −0.85), which implies that a larger increase in microbial biomass during incubation with the organic fertilizer resulted in less N mineralization. The blends containing woody compost scored better for nitrification activity, as the NH4-N concentrations were lower in these than for the blends without woody compost. For the peat blends, no effect on the microbial biomass was observed after addition of organic fertilizers; mineral N did increase, however. Woody composts have the potential to be used in high vol% in growing media blends, but the blends still need further optimization when supplemented with organic fertilizers.

show abstract

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Microbiome Of Growing Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction 1new Materials In Growing Media Blendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Sustainable Growing Media Blends with Woody Green Composts: Optimizing the N Release with Organic Fertilizers and Interaction with Microbial Biomass

Vandecasteele¹,

Loo²,

Ommeslag³

et al. 2022

Agronomy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even so, the import of peat in absolute quantity hardly decreased. As peat is by far the most versatile and qualitatively most convenient growing media, finding alternatives still poses a major challenge, of which the industry is well aware (Schmilewski, 2009;Carlile and Waller, 2013;Barrett et al, 2016;Vandecasteele et al, 2021). Large scale alternatives at present are coir products, wood fiber products, bark, perlite and to a lesser extent woody compost.…”

Section: Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recirculation, circular fertilizers and resilience: the potential of growing media systems for circular production

Blok¹,

Verkerke²,

Boedijn³

et al. 2021

Acta Hortic.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This publication is made publicly available in the institutional repository of Wageningen University and Research, under the terms of article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Amendment Taverne. This has been done with explicit consent by the author.Article 25fa states that the author of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds is entitled to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.This publication is distributed under The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) 'Article 25fa implementation' project. In this project research outputs of researchers employed by Dutch Universities that comply with the legal requirements of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act are distributed online and free of cost or other barriers in institutional repositories. Research outputs are distributed six months after their first online publication in the original published version and with proper attribution to the source of the original publication.

show abstract

Microbial-based conversion of food waste for sustainable bioremediation and utilization as compost

Hamid,

Yatoo,

Sayyed

et al. 2023

Biomass Conv. Bioref.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acidification of composts versus woody management residues: Optimizing biological and chemical characteristics for a better fit in growing media

Cited by 20 publications

References 36 publications

Sustainable Growing Media Blends with Woody Green Composts: Optimizing the N Release with Organic Fertilizers and Interaction with Microbial Biomass

Sustainable Growing Media Blends with Woody Green Composts: Optimizing the N Release with Organic Fertilizers and Interaction with Microbial Biomass

Recirculation, circular fertilizers and resilience: the potential of growing media systems for circular production

Microbial-based conversion of food waste for sustainable bioremediation and utilization as compost

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About