The Growth Promotion of Peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) by Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742-Based Biological Organic Fertilizer: Possible Role of Increasing Nutrient Availabilities

Abstract

Trichoderma spp. is a cosmopolitan group of soil fungi which plays a remarkable role in stimulating plant growth after interacting with plant roots and has good application prospects in intensive agriculture. In this study, rice straw and amino acids improved the population of Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742 under solid-state fermentation and helped us develop a new type of organic fertilizer. The effects of this biological organic fertilizer were evaluated in the growth of peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) for two seasons under sandy and mountain soils. In the first season, the yields in T6 (0.06% solid fermentation products in soil) and AT6 (added 0.06% solid fermentation products and 1% amino acid organic fertilizer in soil) treatments were increased by 41.8% and 52.3% in sandy soil and by 51.6% and 46.5% in mountain soil, respectively, compared with chemical fertilizer. During the second season, the same trend was obtained in both sandy and mountain soils. Soil peroxidase activity (125.2 μmol·g−1 dw), urease activity (58.7 μmol·g−1 dw) and invertase activity (13.11 mg·g−1 dw) reached their highest levels in biological organic fertilizer compared to the treatments with chemical fertilizer and solid fermentation products. Redundancy analysis showed that crop yield was positively correlated with enzyme activities, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus. Thus, we demonstrated that NJAU4742-enriched biological organic fertilizer could accelerate the transformation of nutrients and promote pepper growth.

Organic Amendments: Direct Application and Residual Effects on Vegetative and Reproductive Growth of Hot Pepper

“…Generally, higher biomass weights were found in the organic amendments with vermicompost and biochar whereas lower values were weighed in the control treatment and conventional composts during direct application and residual effects, possibly due to the significant variation in growth media physicochemical properties, such as organic carbon, total nitrogen content, and bulk density which led to increasing fresh biomass weight by improving soil fertility and nutrient uptake capacity [36]. is result was in agreement with several research findings [7,[76][77][78][79][80], who concisely reported that there is an increment in total plant fresh biomass weight when organic fertilizer specially vermicompost or biochar is applied. e advancing trend of pepper total biomass was mainly for the account of the increased mass of the above and underground organs [82].…”

Effect of Colonization of Trichoderma harzianum on Growth Development and CBD Content of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

“…Regarding soil activity of the fungus, the association with soil minerals and the solubilization of phosphate is a well-known process that is carried out by Trichoderma fungi and highlights the promotion of mobility of this important macronutrient for plants [ 65 ]. The moderation of nitrogen and carbon concentration in the soil and the plant, along with Fe 3+ chelating siderophores production, is a process that leads to increased nutrient availability [ 66 ]. However, there are also reports about potential negative effects on the crop due to the production of phytotoxic metabolites (trichothecenes) [ 67 ].…”

Seaweed Fertilizer Prepared by EM-Fermentation Increases Abundance of Beneficial Soil Microbiome in Paddy (Oryzasativa L.) during Vegetative Stage

“…The fermentation process was carried out for 40 days, which is an optimal period according to previous studies [30]. Fermentation has been reported to potentially increase nutrient availabilities in certain fertilizers [31]. However, there remains limited information regarding the beneficial effects of fermentation on chemical components of seaweed biomass-based fertilizers.…”