An effective method of utilizing vegetable waste in the form of carriers for Trichoderma strains with phytosanitary properties

Abstract It has been assumed that compost from savoy cabbage and rapeseed straw is a good substrate for discrimination of the reproduction potential of Trichoderma strains. This hypothesis was verified based on a two-stage incubation experiment. The prepared mixture was fermented in a bio-reactor for 11 weeks. In the second experiment, the mature compost was inoculated with four strains of Trichoderma and a spore concentration of 10 4 and 10 6 , and then incubated for four weeks. The biomass of autogenic fungi reached a maximum of 12.5 mg∙g −1 DM in the cooling phase. The variability in temperature during composting significantly affected NH 3 emission. The pH of mature compost from cabbage wastes, as a result of the elevated NH 3 emission reached the alkaline range. The survival of the Trichoderma fungi introduced into the alkali substrate was a result of strain sensitivity to the high pH of the compost and to the initial inoculum density. The adaptation potential of Trichoderma harzianum to the alkali milieu depended on the pH stabilization of the substrate by this fungi, provided the spore inoculum density was 10 6 . The strains of Trichoderma atroviride responded negatively, regardless of the inoculum density, to the alkaline pH of the substrate and to self-induced changes in the compost pH.