ABSTRACT

The use of compost tea has increased in organic agriculture as a substitute for herbicides and inorganic fertilizers, but the relative effects of compost tea produced via different methods are largely unknown. We examined the effects of compost tea on soil and plant chemistry and microbial community enzyme activity on an organic blueberry farm in Minnesota, USA. We randomly assigned plants to one of three compost tea treatments: aerated compost tea under ambient temperature, heated and aerated compost tea, and a control treatment. Heated and aerated compost tea increased soil percent nitrogen compared to the other treatments, and decreased activity of β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, an enzyme involved in chitin degradation, compared to the aerated-only treatment. We propose that the production method of compost tea has a significant effect on its efficacy as an organic soil amendment.

在有机农业中，堆肥茶作为除草剂和无机肥料的替代品的使用有所增加，但通过不同方法生产的堆肥茶的相对作用尚不清楚。我们检查了堆肥茶对美国明尼苏达州一个有机蓝莓农场的土壤和植物化学以及微生物群落酶活性的影响。我们将植物随机分配到三种堆肥茶处理方法之一：环境温度下的充气堆肥茶，加热和充气的堆肥茶以及对照处理。与仅进行充气处理相比，加热和充气的堆肥茶与其他处理相比增加了土壤氮含量，并且降低了与几丁质降解有关的酶β-1,4-N-乙酰氨基葡糖苷酶的活性。