Foliar spraying of vermicompost extracts: effects on fruit quality and indications of late-blight suppression of field-grown tomatoes

Summary

The effect of foliar sprays with aqueous vermicompost extracts on growth, yields, morphological and chemical fruit quality and natural infection with late blight disease (Phytophthora infestans(Mont.) de Bary)) on three tomato varieties (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., cv. Diplom F1, cv. Matina, cv. Rheinlands Ruhm) was investigated in a field experiment. Extracts were prepared of vermicompost produced from fruit, vegetable and cotton waste by redworms (Eisenia fetida Sav., Lumbricidae); tap water served as control treatment. Foliar application (spraying) of vermicompost extracts did not affect plant growth, biomass or nutrient allocation, or yields and number of fruits of the three tomato varieties; however, for several dates it significantly reduced the number of flowers produced. Foliar vermicompost spraying either increased or decreased peel firmness dependent on tomato variety and increased fruit circumference consistently as well as contents of nitrogen but decreased L-ascorbic acid compared with water sprayed fruits. All other measured parameters of fruit quality (dry matter, C, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, glucose and fructose content) were similar for vermicompost and water sprayed plants.
Natural infection of leaves, stems and fruits by P. infestans was generally very low under the experimental conditions; however, across varieties, only half as many vermicompost sprayed plants showed clear signs of P. infestans infection as water sprayed plants; the severity of the infection was unaffected by the two spraying treatments. In conclusion, these results suggest that the use of vermicompost might be considered more in organic farming not only as a substitute for peat in potting media but also as foliar sprays for fertilization and biological disease prevention.