Biostimulant Effects of Waste Derived Biobased Products in the Cultivation of Ornamental and Food Plants

Abstract

Soluble bio-based substances (SBS) may be isolated from the anaerobic digestate of the organic humid fraction of urban waste; from the whole vegetable compost made from gardening residues and from the compost obtained after aerobic digestion of a mixture of urban waste digestate, gardening residues and sewage sludge. These SBS can be used as sustainable and efficient plant biostimulants in alternatives to the commercial products based on fossil sources such as the Leonardite. The present review summarizes the main findings obtained from recent studies accomplished with the SBS applied on several ornamental (Euphorbia; Lantana; Murraya; Hibiscus) and vegetable species (tomato; red pepper; spinach; maize; bean; wheat; tobacco; oilseed rape) with the aim to evaluate their effect on plant growth; fruit and ornamental quality. The main results from these studies show that the non-commercial SBS are more efficient than commercial fossil-based products; at equal applied doses; in enhancing plant growth; leaf chlorophylls; photosynthetic activity; fruit ripening and yield and aesthetic effect; improving flower and fruit quality and optimizing water use efficiency. Depending upon the plant species, increases of the plant performance indicators ranging from zero to 1750% are reported for the plants cultivated in the presence of SBS, relatively to the control plants cultivated in absence of SBS added to the cultivation substrate. The review suggests that biowaste recycling is a sustainable and environmentally friendly source of plant biostimulants, as an alternative to existing fossil sourced agrochemicals.

Effect of municipal biowaste derived biostimulant on nitrogen fate in the plant-soil system during lettuce cultivation

“…Several studies evaluated the biostimulant effect of BPs on a wide range of crops 5 , but BPs for lettuce cultivation had never been tested. In lettuce at the shoot level, the treatments BPs150 + MF100% (+ 24% respect to MF100%) and BPs150 + MF60% (+ 22% respect to MF100%) determined a relevant increase of the FW of the edible portion, in accordance with the biostimulant effects observed for other species 10 – 15 .…”

“…Recently, the performance of BPs in agriculture as plant growth biostimulants and antifungal agents had been reported 5 . The BPs, applied to the soil at 50–150 kg/ha, were demonstrated to be more sustainable and efficient plant biostimulants, in comparison to commercial mineral and organo-mineral products (e.g.…”

The potential of biostimulants on soil microbial community: a review

“…The advantageous factor of the accumulation of various forms of microbes employed as plant biofertilizers may hinge upon their potentiality under unfavorable conditions of the environments. Studies have revealed the activity of biostimulants when different materials were added together, describing synergistic interactions (Montoneri et al, 2022;Navarro-Leoń et al, 2022;Canellas et al, 2023). This review portrays how biostimulants (microbial-based) can be produced employing the following methods: AMF/PGPR multispecies consortia, a single PGPM strain, and aggregation of PGPMs with inorganic and organic chemicals.…”

New insights into municipal biowaste derived products as promoters of seed germination and potential antifungal compounds for sustainable agriculture

“…In this context, municipal biowaste (MBW) is potentially the most sustainable renewable feedstock. It is readily available in every urban settlement in the world and is a negative cost feedstock, since its collection costs are already paid off by citizens' taxes [2][3][4]. Under these circumstances, turning a MBW treatment plant into a biorefinery producing biofuel and biobased value added chemical specialities is an attracting perspective.…”