Comparison of the effects of compost and vermicompost soil amendments in organic production of four herb species

Substrate-Dependent Effect of Vermicompost on Yield and Physiological Indices of Container-Grown Dracocephalum moldavica Plants

“…Both compost [21][22][23]27] and vermicompost [26,27] have been verified as promising types of organic fertilizers for the cultivation of D. moldavica. Most importantly, the application of compost and vermicompost increased the yield of the essential oil obtained from D. moldavica [21,23,26], but the use of vermicompost also resulted in an increase in soil microbial activity [26], indicating that not only yield and yield quality, but also soil sustainability, are positively affected by these organic fertilizers.…”

“…Studies in controlled conditions greatly eliminate the undesirable effects of environmental heterogeneity, providing more comparable results with higher generalization ability. Recently, we examined a possibility for the organic production of D. moldavica in controlled conditions, using compost and vermicompost as soil amendments, and concluded that the use of vermicompost is superior to that of compost, even with the same amount of plant-available nutrients [27].…”

“…The analysis of fluorescence transient has been most widely used as a tool to monitor environmental stress responses in plants [30]. However, it can also be used to characterize changes in the general physiological status of plants, as related to their performance and environmental adaptation in the case of wild plants [28] or growth/yield relationships of crop species due to different agricultural practices [27]. In particular, several studies have shown a relationship between the photochemistry of photosynthesis and the status of plant mineral nutrition [31][32][33][34], indicating that chlorophyll a fluorescence analysis can be also used to predict the physiological status of crops in studies aiming to assess the effects of organic fertilizers.…”

Effect of Vermicompost Doses on Canabis Sativa Photosynthesis-Related Parameters, Growth and Yield

“…2 and 3), indicating that other constituents of vermicompost in addition to plant-available mineral nutrients were responsible for the effect. Plant physiology-related benefits of vermicompost application have been recently reviewed in detail [14], and it was concluded that most likely ingredients of vermicompost with putative growth-promoting effect could be soluble humic substances and microorganism-derived plant hormone-like compounds. We have shown previously that stimulation of hemp seed germination by vermicompost extract was due to summed activity of humic and fulvic acids, linear growth of hypocotyl and radicle was promoted by hormone-like substances, but mass accumulation in seedlings was promoted by plantavailable minerals [15].…”

“…Another positive benefit of vermicompost application is due to additional effect of biologically active, plant hormone-like substances produced by microorganisms [10]. It has been found that both mechanisms are responsible for positive effects on plant growth and yield in vermicompost-amended soils [16], [14]. In the context of the present study, vermicompost extract has been shown to stimulate germination of hemp seeds due to summed activity of humic and fulvic acids, while linear growth stimulation of a plant hypocotyls was induced by some unidentified soluble compounds, but increase in fresh mass of the hypocotyls resulted from effect of mineral nutrients [15].…”