Production of High-quality Composts for Horticultural Purposes: A Mini-review

Abstract

<jats:p>Compost is organic matter that has undergone partial thermophilic, aerobic decomposition. This environmentally safe process is called composting. The combination of raw materials and the chosen composting method yields a wide range of characteristics, such as organic matter (OM) content, nutrient content, potential for disease suppressiveness and other physical, chemical, and biological properties. The objectives of this review are describing the horticultural outlets for composts, defining compost characteristics important for the above uses, and describing composting procedures and raw materials leading to these characteristics. The two main horticultural uses of composts are as soil amendment and as an ingredient in container media. Soil-applied composts improve soil fertility mainly by increasing soil organic matter (SOM) that activates soil biota. Compost's nutrient content, and especially that of nitrogen (N), should be high (&gt;1.8%). Composts having these characteristics are produced of raw materials rich in both OM and N, while minimizing their loss during composting. Typical raw materials for this purpose include animal manures, offal, abattoir residues, sewage sludge, and grass clippings. Various composting methods can yield the required results, including turned windrows, aerated static piles, and in-vessel composting. Composts are also used for substrates as low-cost peat substitute, potentially suppressive against various soilborne diseases. These composts must be stable and non-phytotoxic. Physical properties of compost used as substrate are important. Hydraulic conductivity, air porosity, and available water should be high. Reconciling the physical and biological demands may be difficult. Materials such as softwood bark, wood shavings, various types of shells or hulls, and coconut coir are characterized by good physical properties after composting. However, being relatively resistant to decomposition, these materials should be subjected to long and well-controlled composting, which may be shortened using N and N-rich organic matter such as animal manures. High temperatures [&gt;65 °C (149.0 °F)] may cause ashing, which leads to reduced porosity. In addition to ligneous materials, composts serving as growing media may be produced from numerous organic wastes, such as manures, food industry wastes, etc. These materials are better composted in aerated static piles, which tend to minimize physical breakdown. Animal excreta are of special value for co-composting as they contain large, diverse populations of microorganisms, which accelerate the process.</jats:p>

On farm production of compost from nursery green residues and its use to reduce peat for the production of olive pot plants

“…Peat lands cover 3% of the Earth's land surface but boreal and subarctic peat lands store about 15-30% of the world's soil carbon as peat (Limpens et al, 2008). Therefore, there is an international effort to evaluate other organic substrates alternative to peat for the composition of potting mixes with comparable quality (Raviv et al, 1998;Benito et al, 2005;Raviv, 2005;Herrera et al, 2008;Pane et al, 2011;Altieri et al, 2014). Composting is an aerobic process, during which a mixture of organic substrates is degraded by several microbial communities, transferring the organic matter into a stabilized endproduct (Insam and de Bertoldi, 2007), which represents a potential alternative to peat (Boldrin et al, 2009).…”

Study of fat compost from dairy industry wastewater as a new substrate for pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) crop

“…Additionally, organic materials are the safer sources of plant nutrients without any detrimental effect to crops and soil (Hasanuzzamanet al, 2010). The compost acts as a source of slow-release nutrients, available for plants (Chaoui et al, 2003;Raviv, 2005) and prevents nutrient losses into the environment (Giuffré et al, 2011). It is well know that the addition of compost to soils and growing media promotes the development and productivity of different horticultural crops such as tomato (Hernández et al, 2014) and pepper (Pascual et al, 2009;Shrestha et al, 2013).…”

Leaching composted lignocellulosic wastes to prepare container media: Feasibility and environmental concerns

“…In this area of research composting is one of the most attractive organic waste management methods due to further utilization of the end product, compost, in a number of beneficial applications (Raviv, 1998(Raviv, , 2005Stoffella and Kahn, 2001) such as soil amending, fertilization, disturbed land restoration, landfill covering, landscape gardening, soilless substrate cultivation, plant disease suppression, and so forth.…”