Valorization of vermicompost: effects on morpho-physiological parameters of organic tomato plantlets (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore the effect of vermicompost on the growth and physiological parameters of the tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum L.). The experiment was carried out in a complete random block design. In the initial nursery phase, different percentages (20, 30, and 40%) of vermicompost/compost were used, and the mixture containing 15% of each was evaluated in the cell plug trays. In the transplanting phase, seedlings randomly selected based on their superior growth performance from treatments involving 20% compost/vermicompost, as well as the mixture were subsequently transplanted into pots filled with organic soil. Plants were monitored until the flowering stage, and measurements were taken at different growth stages of the plant, such as shoot length, stem diameter, number of leaves, root length, fresh and dry weight of the plant. Moreover, some physiological parameters, such as chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, were assessed. An ANOVA using SPSS was used to process the data collected from the experiment. The results showed that vermicompost treatments induced a significant increase in shoot length, stem diameter, leaves number, root length, contents of chlorophyll a and carotenoid of tomato plants compared to the control, with an improvement of 54, 38, 38, 70, 44, and 69.5%, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of vermicompost as a potential nutrient source for crop production.

Keywords:

• Carotenoids
• chlorophyll
• compost
• tomato
• vegetative growth
• vermicompost

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to Prof. Neila Saidi from ‘Laboratory of Water, Membrane Environment Biotechnologies’, Centre of Research and Water Technologies, Technopark of Borj-Cedria, Tunisia, for her contribution to this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).