Pelletized Biochar as a Carrier for AM Fungi in the On-Farm System of Inoculum Production in Compost and Vermiculite Mixtures

Abstract

On farm production of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is suitable for vegetable and horticultural crop production because the inocula may be efficiently mixed into horticultural potting media for plant production in the greenhouse. These inocula are not amenable for use in row crop production because they are not in a form suitable for mechanical application. Experiments were conducted in which light expanded clay aggregates (LECA) and pelletized biochar were used in the media for the on-farm production of AM fungus inoculum utilizing compost and vermiculite with Paspalum notatum Flugge as the nurse host plant. Subsequent colonization assays using P. notatum failed to detect any infectivity of LECA granules, indicating that the AM fungi did not infest the granules. However, as little as 0.1 g fresh wt of biochar was sufficient to produce colonization of test plants. Biochar pellets recovered from the on-farm system used to propagate Rhizophagus intraradices exhibited 24 propagules g ¡1 fresh wt. These results indicate the promise of pelletized biochar as a carrier for AM fungi in inoculum production systems.

Linking bioavailability and toxicity changes of complex chemicals mixture to support decision making for remediation endpoint of contaminated soils

“…While many studies demonstrated the ability of biochar amendment to increase the population of microorganisms (Douds et al, 2014;Hua et al, 2011;Yoshizawa et al, 2005;Zhang and Sun, 2014), no significant increase of the number of culturable bacteria was observed in this study. In particular, all the above mentioned studies involve the use of a primary source of nutrients (green waste or sludge) along with biochar addition.…”

Effects of pyrolysis parameters on the yield and properties of biochar from pelletized sunflower husk

“…The literature provides a great number of studies on different types of biochars used as sorbents for removal of various organic and inorganic contaminants, soil amendments and fertilizers, supplementary materials for composting and anaerobic digestion, additives for remediation of contaminated soil, etc. [10][11][12][13][14]. The most recent applications include using biochar as a potential hydroponic growth substrate [15], a biochar composite membrane or a wood polymer composite [16,17], a green roof substrate [18] or a microbial carrier [19].…”

Use of Penicillium bilaiae to improve phosphorus bioavailability of thermally treated sewage sludge – A potential novel type biofertiliser

“…Available studies on biochar as a carrier for bacterial strains show positive effects of the biochar on the inoculated microorganisms [22,25,26]. For example, Hale, Luth, Kenney and Crowley [22] used pinewood biochar as an inoculant carrier for a plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) strain (Enterobacter cloacae UW5) in a pot trial and observed an improvement in survival of the bacteria compared with conventional inoculation with a microbial suspension.…”