Dr. Eric B. Nelson’s Laboratory Group Vermicompost Use In Greenhouse Production: Nutrient Management And Disease Suppression Allison L H Jack Dr. Eric B. Nelson’s Laboratory Group Long Island Ag Forum 1-14-10

Overview What is vermicompost? Nutrient management Disease suppression Conclusions and future directions

1. What is vermicompost?

Vermicompost and sustainable agriculture Liability Asset vermicompost $ Excess manure: Synthetic inputs: For this market to be viable, the vermicompost must consistently meet growers’ needs…in order to do this we have to understand its effects on plants in detail and how to predict these effects $ Dairy operation Vegetable/ fruit grower $ Environmental problem Environmental problem

Thermophilic compost Vermicompost Static aerated (indoor) Windrows (outdoor) 6-9 months curing Relies primarily on action of microbes Usually follows a hot composting step Worm beds (indoor) Windrows (outdoor) Entire process: ~70 days

Earthworms “farm” microbes INPUT Decomposed  more available nutrients microbes Organic matter OUTPUT Contrast to soil dwellers…composting worms are manure dwellers. Microbes are not scarce in manure, but much of the material is very recalcitrant cast [Swift 1979]

The soil ‘sleeping beauty paradox’ Say why it is a paradox Emphasize this is for soil dwelling worms [Lavelle et al. 1995, Brown et al. 2000]

Properties of end products Equivalent total N Vermicompost can have up to 2 x NO3- (plant available) ~700 mg kg-1 Unique plant-associated microbial communities Vermicompost is re-wettable and a finer texture Vermicompost can have more highly humified organic matter [Vinceslas-Akpa & Loquet 1997] Mention market price Availability has been a barrier to large scale use

2. Nutrient management

Factors affecting growth media performance Nutrient levels Plant availability – slow release Electrical conductivity [EC] (salts) Water holding capacity – drainage Phytotoxicity – germination pH ‘Wetability’

Organic tomato trials SUN Industry standard: peat-based potting mix with turkey litter compost & blood meal BASE Negative control: 70:30 (v:v) mixture of sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite TC Composted dairy manure solids (20%v/v) RT Solutions VC Vermicomposted dairy manure solids (20% v/v) SM1 Sesame meal (1% v/v) SM2.5 Sesame meal (2.5% v/v) AM5 Alfalfa meal (5%) [Jack, Sooksa-Nguan, Culman, Rangarajan, Thies in press]

Chemical characteristics Media pH EC dS m-1 N % NO3-N mg kg-1 NH4- N P K Organic C C:N BASE SUN TC05 VC05 AM5 SM1 SM2.5 7.0 6.0 7.1 6.7 6.1 6.5 6.4 0.68 0.95 1.43 1.86 4.02 0.74 0.75 0.64 0.73 1.21 1.33 1.42 1.26 1.91 38 361 67 721 13 213 169 9 296 60 92 89 75 79 42 220 997 779 686 543 1,259 642 322 3,989 2,462 10,805 1,004 1,551 35.7 33.3 30.8 32.5 33.0 29.3 32.2 55.6 45.8 25.4 24.4 23.3 16.9

Transplant biomass & yield In GH At Transplanting Mid-season Media Percent germination Fresh Wt g plant-1 Dry Wt BASE SUN TC05 VC05 AM5 SM1 SM2.5 96 a 95 a 60 b 91 a 0.13 e 1.52 d 0.74 e 2.32 c 2.44 bc 3.17 ab 3.89 a 0.02 e 0.23 d 0.11 e 0.37 ab 0.27 cd 0.43 a 0.33 bc 115 f 561 e 615 de 738 bc 693 cd 819 b 969 a 12 e 58 d 62 d 77 bc 72 c 83 b 101 a Media Early yield (ha-1) Marketable yield (ha-1) Fruit # 1000’s Yield MT Av. Fruit Wt g  Fruit # BASE SUN TC VC AM5 SM1 SM2.5 9.16 d 85.79 bc 69.06 c 119.67 a 102.84 ab 112.41 ab 117.07 a 2.66 d 22.91 bc 19.67 c 33.32 a 26.83 abc 28.62 ab 30.17 ab 285 a 252 bc 257 b 255 bc 242 cd 232 d 116.4 c 288.1 ab 284.0 b 332.7 ab 315.4 ab 340.1 a 330.1 ab 32.8 b 72.7 a 72.9 a 84.6 a 76.2 a 79.0 a 76.7 a

Soluble nutrients can leach 20% Vermicompost & fish emulsion 20% Vermicompost

Mixtures of amendments Out of 21 media tested, hog and dairy manure vermicomposts at 20% with a mixture of blood meal, green sand and rock phosphate performed the best with tomato [Leonard & Rangarajan 2007] May make nutrients in synthetic fertilizers more plant available [Mattson in progress] z Early yield calculated by combining yield from first three (2004) or first two (2005) harvests. y Means in the same year followed by the same letter are not significantly different at p<0.05.

Cabbage trials Control 10% VC & BM Blood meal 10% VC Blood meal, green sand, rock phosphate Organic materials rely on microbial activity to mineralize nutrients and make them plant available - results are temperature sensitive [Rangarajan, Leonard & Jack, ongoing]

Vermicompost is added to tops of plug trays, aerated vermicompost extract is piped directly into overhead irrigation 2008

Aerated compost extract Non-aerated compost extract Expensive equipment ($20,000) No shelf life Additives needed Cheap equipment ($250) Long shelf life No additives needed sump 100 gallon tub Timer Sump pump (circulates 2x a day) [Elzinga Hoeksema Nurseries, MI]

Nutrient NVE Scott’s 20-10-20 Units 100 ppm N 200 ppm N ammonium N 2.600 40 80 ppm nitrate N 13.313 60 120 P 66.667 22 44 K 293.333 83 166 Ca 46.667 Mg 10.000 0.75 1.5 S 20.000 Na 56.117 Al 2.663 Fe 7.613 0.25 0.5 Mn 0.267 0.125 Cu 0.703 0.0625 Zn 1.147 B Mo 0.025 0.05 [with N. Mattson]

3. Disease suppression

Vermicomposts can protect plants from disease Multiple cases documented in scientific literature But, suppression depends on: Amendment rate Type of feedstock Temperature Presence of synthetic fertilizers Potting media substrate

tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Crop Pathogen tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Phytophthora nicotianae var. nicotianae Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici cabbage (Brassica oleracea cv. 'Ditmarska') Plasmodiophora brassicae tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. 'Remiz') Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici chickpea (Cicer arietinum cv. ‘Avrodhi’) Sclerotium rolfsii cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv. "Marketmore 76') Pythium irregulare Pythium ultimum cabbage (Brassica oleracea cv. 'Cheers') Rhizoctonia solani tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Nacobbus aberrans [Jack in press]

It works…sometimes Scientists don’t understand enough of how it works to predict if a compost will be suppressive or not This is a major barrier to effective us of these materials for disease management Cornell Soil Health program has developed soil testing that takes a more holistic approach i.e. beyond N-P-K

What do we know? Single organism biological control is well understood in specific cases Suppression of disease by a complex community of microbes is much more complicated!

Example: Pythium spp. (damping off) Post-emergence damping off [www.ipmimages.org]

[modified from Matthews 1931] P. aphanidermatum germinating sporangium sporangium direct asexual zoosporangium zoospores indirect DISEASE vegetative hyphae Germinating oospore Velma Matthews University of North Carolina Press oogonium sexual antheridium oospore Jack Cornell University 2008 oogonium [modified from Matthews 1931]

Mechanisms of biocontrol Single organism: Antibiosis Competition for nutrients Parasitism Induced systemic resistance

Zwittermicin A (antibiotic) Antibiosis Pythium zoospore Bacillus subtilis “Kodiak TM” Zwittermicin A (antibiotic) Root surface [Shang et al. 1999]

Competition for nutrients Seed exudates Cucumber seed Enterobacter cloacae Linoleic acid Pythium sporangium Linoleic acid Linoleic acid = fatty acid in seed exudate Pythium sporangium [van Dijk and Nelson 2000]

Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR) [Chen et al. 2000] Signals turn on plant defenses, antioxidants, NO, H2O2 etc. Pseudomonas corrugata Pythium sporangium

Parasitism www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/pathogens/trichoderma

Multiple organism biocontrol Often associated with high microbial biomass and activity Unclear which organisms are involved and how they interact with each other Goal: Understand how disease suppression works in a single system so we can make the practice more effective Note about commercial testing here

Liquid vermicompost extract Solid vermicompost Liquid vermicompost extract Soil drench applied when irrigating Can provide comparative levels of suppression with 2000 x less compost Can be freeze dried and reconstituted Simple feedstock + process control = more consistent product OMRI listed Potting media amendment 5-20% depending on crop

40% amendment

Zoospore pre-infection events Edit film, cut out swimming section (Windows Moviemaker)

The Spermosphere cucumber seed Pythium zoospore Seed exudates Explain working hypothesis Seed exudates Jack Cornell University 2008

30 60 90 120 150 Pythium inoculation Shoot height (mm) a 7d a 8h 7d b 30 60 90 120 150 a 7d a 8h 7d b 8h 7d a 7d Extract RNA from seed surface, clone and sequence to determine which taxa/functional genes are present b 7d Non-inoculated a 7d Sand Suppressive compost Seed Microbes [Chen & Nelson 2008] 7d

Conclusions Vermicomposts are: a valuable component in organic potting media for nutrient management cultural practice for suppressing disease Scientific understanding is not at a level where we can make predictions for specific composts Consider collaborating with regional researchers to further develop these practices

Acknowledgements Nelson Lab: Mary Ann Karp Eric Carr Monica Minson Ellen Crocker Sarah Arnold Dave Moody Financial support: Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Microbe Biology USDA BARD Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines New York Farm Viability Institute NYSTAR Center for Advanced Technology & USDA SBIR Phase I & II (with Worm Power) Organic Farming Research Foundation Organic Crop Improvement Association Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship My committee: Eric Nelson (PPPMB) Anthony Hay (MICRO) Anu Rangarajan (HORT) Kathie Hodge (PPPMB) Scott Peters (EDUC) Industry collaborator: Tom Herlihy Worm Power Kent Loeffler – photo credits SBIR Program