International Journal of

Innovative Biological
Research

Vol. 2; Issue 1; Year 2013; Page 51-60

ISSN: 2169-1878
DOI: 10.1111/ijibr.v%vi%i.37
Available at http://sci-edit.net/journal/index.php/ijibr/index

Compost Teas An Organic Source For Crop Disease Manegement

K. Praveena Deepthi1* and P. Narayan Reddy2
College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India 500030.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades, there have been reports of the use of water extracts made from composts for control of foliar
diseases. Extracts are prepared by mixing compost and water and incubating the resulting slurry with or with out agitation
for several days. Compost teas can be either non aerated or aerated. Both methods intentionally ferment well decomposed
compost in water for a defined period of time. The key factors influencing the effectiveness of the compost tea were the
age of the compost and nature of its source ingredients and components.The primary benefit of the compost teas will be a
supply of soluble nutrients, which can be used as liquid fertilizer. In addition to the nutrition they can be used potentially for
plant disease suppression. Compost tea has been used to suppress various fruit and vegetable diseases. Compost teas can be
sprayed on crop to coat leaf surfaces, and so that they provide resistance to infection from pathogens.Compost teas are very
beneficial in plant disease management and they can be included in the integrated disease management strategies of field and
horticultural crops. Even the addition of this organic extracts to growing media encourage the growth of benign organisms,
which suppress the plant diseases. Compost teas show multiple modes of activity in suppressing plant diseases like, induced
resistance, antibiosis and competition. Regardless of the mode of action, preventive application before pathogen infection
appears necessary for optimal control through all known mode of actions.
Keywords:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
entrich organic materials resulting from the treatment of
INTRODCUTION
Over the last two decades, there have been reports sewage sludge. Manure, an agricultural waste, can offer
of the use of water extracts made from composts for con- multiple beneficial uses including nutrients for crop protrol of foliar diseases. Extracts are prepared by mixing duction and organic matter to improve soil properties.
compost and water and incubating the resulting slurry
with or with out agitation for several days. The slurry Compost Tea:
A term used interchangeably with Watery Feris filtered through cheesecloth, the filtrate termed as
compost tea or compost water extract. It is sprayed onto mented Compost Extracts, Compost steepage, compost
the aerial surfaces of plants. This approach of biological water extract, Organic Tea and Compost leachate to
control, if constantly effective in practice, is a potentially define water based compost preparations. The term does
attractive alternative to fungicides that is consistent with not distinguish between the productions methods. Compost tea can otherwise defined as an extract made from
sustainable agriculture (1).
compost suspended in a barrel of water for 7-14 days (2).
DEFINITION OF COMPOST TEAS
Composts :
Organicrich soil amendments are made primarily
from yard waste, food waste, manure and biosolids.
Yard waste includes organic waste from lawns and
gardens, such as grass, leaves, and twigs. Food waste
is similarly comprised of fruit and vegetable trimmings
and kitchen preparation residuals. Biosolids are nutri_________________________________________
*Corresponding author
email: praveenadeepthi@gmail.com
Tel.: NA, Fax: NA
Accepted on 14th Aug, 2013

TYPES OF COMPOST TEAS

Compost teas can be either non aerated or aerated.
Both methods intentionally ferment well decomposed
compost in water for a defined period of time. Aerobic
compost teas refer to any method in which water is
actively aerated during the fermentation process. Non
aerated compost tea refers to methods that do not disturb or only minimally disturb the fermentation after
initial mixing.
Non aerated compost teas

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

Very little data available for non aerated and aerated production methodologies for plant disease control.
A variety of foliar diseases have been suppressed by
applications of non aerated compost teas. They include
powdery mildew on roses and apples, grey mold on
green beans, strawberries, grapes and geraniums.
Aerated compost teas
Research on the use of aerated compost tea to
control foliar and fruit diseases is comparatively limited. These studies on aerobic compost tea reported
mixed results. One report showing reduced incidence
of brown rot blossom blight on sweet cherry, but many
have reported no reduced incidence of powdery mildew
or other foliar diseases. Impacts of compost teas on
plant health and yield can be crop specific and general
inferences about disease suppression or yield cannot
be made.
In both methods of compost tea production
requires a fermentation vessel, compost, water, incubation and filtration. It is unclear how the compost to
water ratio of non aerated compost tea affects disease
suppression, but limiting the ratio of 1:10 is apparently
effective. Several studies of non aerated compost tea
have indicated that disease suppression varies widely
in relation to the fermentation time. Usually, a five
to eight day and up to 16 days fermentation time is
needed for any level of disease control. Praveena et al.,
(3) reported that compost water extracts obtained with
20 day fermentation were superior in suppressing the
spore germination of Alternaria vitis than 10 and 30 days
fermented extracts. One study suggests as short as 18-24
hours of brewing is enough for disease suppression (4).
The variables affecting the efficacy of compost tea
are substrates, application rate, timing, and weather
conditions. Apart from these it is very important to
have an efficient and reliable machine to make compost
tea, equipment to provide oxygen, to use, to clean etc.,
COMPONENTS AND QUALITY OF COMPOST TEA
The key factors influencing the effectiveness of
compost tea were the age of the compost and nature of
its source ingredients and components (5).
Tosi et al., (6) reported that the efficacy of aqueous
compost extract used for foliar spraying depends on
the method of composting and stabilisation time which
varies from compost to compost.
In well managed compost there are millions of
bacteria of thousands of species. In addition there are
many types of protozoa, beneficial fungi and friendly
nematodes that help to make up the soil food web. It is
the range and diversity of microorganisms that make
high quality compost. David and Millner (7) found
that ingredients added to compost tea might promote

52

or affect the growth of bacteria. This is achieved only

by careful control in the composting process, by paying
particular attention to selection of the original plant
material, critical maintenance of temperature and time
to develop the humus content essential for the microorganisms to multiply and maintain populations.
Other products like sulphur, potassium hydrogen
bi carbonate and potassium phosphite complements
the compost tea approach. Organic based products like
molasses, kelp and biological control agents like Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescens are being used to
compliment routine compost tea applications.
The efficacy of the compost teas retained, after
membrane filtration and autoclaving (8). This revealed
the microbes present in the unsterilized extracts were not
essential to compost tea efficacy. But this extracts failed
to suppress the pathogen in in vitro. This is indicating
that a number of factors have contributed to efficacy.
Filterable, heat stable components seemed to play a role.
COMPOST TEAS AGAINST PLANT DISEASES
Efficacy of crude compost teas
A significant reduction in the incidence of early
blight caused by Alternaria solani was observed with
14 day old compost extract prepared in a ratio of 1:5
compost to water and the yield of tomato in treated
plants was significantly higher than the control (19).
Similarly, Papageorgiou et al., (20) reported that the
mode of extraction affects the efficacy of compost extract.
The extract incubated at 20OC reduced the incidence of
A. solani by 43% compared to the control.
Wickramaarachchi et al., (21) assessed the possibility of inducing resistance in tomato against Alternaria
solani using foliar spraying of compost teas. Foliar
spray of 100% cattle manure based compost extracts
amended with Trichoderma viride was superior over the
other treatments.
Nakasone et al., (22) reported that the anaerobic
aqueous extracts obtained by mixing vermicompost and
organic compost at a ratio of 1:1 with water were effective in suppressing the mycelial growth of Colletotrichum
sp, Alternaria solani, Botrytis cinerea, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Sclerotium rolfsii, Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium
oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici. Praveena et al., (3) reported
that the compost teas made with 20 day fermented Fish
meal compost extract at 50% showed 80.42% inhibition,
followed by sugarcane press mud extract at 10% given
73.75% inhibition of spore germination of Grapevine leaf
blight pathogen Alternaria vitis, but none of them were
effective in reducing the mycelial growth.
Scheuerell and Mahaffee (4) reported that a variety of plant foliar pathogens and diseases have been
suppressed by application of non aerated compost tea
while few organic extracts were with limited control

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

options. Further they (4) reported the effect of aerated
and non aerated compost tea, produced with or with out
additives for the suppression of damping off of cucumber caused by Pythium ultimum. Aerated compost tea
produced without the molasses based additives, had a
threshold of bacterial population density above 7 log 10
cfu/ml which makes compost teas suppressive.
Dittmer et al., (23) reported that the treatment of
extracts of grape marc and cow manure resulted in a
reduction in the incidence of Erysiphe graminis f.sp. hordei
and an increase in barley yield. Similar results were
reported by Winterscheidt et al., (24) while working
with downy mildew of cucumber caused by Pseudoperonospora cubensis. The water extracts of cattle and horse
manure and grape marc reduced mycelial growth and
inhibited conidial germination of Botrytis cinerea and
reduced the incidence of B. cinerea on detached grape
leaves. The disease incidence was influenced by incubating time (25).
The efficacy of extracts of fermented compost
prepared from cattle manure, chicken manure and
grape marc was tested by Elad and Shtienberg (26)
against grey mold on tomato, pepper and on grape
berries. All the extracts reduce the disease by 56-100
% after a fermentation lasting more than10 days. Tsror
et al., (27) indicated that the water extracts from cattle
manure compost, kaligrin and difol (fish oil) grape marc
compost AQ10 significantly reduced the incidence of
powdery mildew caused by Leveillula taurica on pepper
in comparison with the non treated control.
An experiment was carried out by El Marsy et al.,
(28) in vitro and in situ to determine the effect of various
composts and their water extract on different fungi. In
situ results indicated that the concentration of compost
water extract at 5, 10 and 15% suppressed Sclerotium
bataticola, by 83% using 5% crop compost and by 94%
using 5% leaf compost and 10% garden compost. Treatments with compost extracts obtained from 2-3 year old
cattle manure and nettle extract had an inhibitory effect
on leaf diseases like anthracnose and Septoria leaf spot
and increased yields of white currant during the two
year organic cultivation experiment (29).
Yohalem et al., (30) reported that, out of more than
30 compost materials tested, anaerobically fermented
aqueous extracts of spent mushroom substrate were
most effective in the inhibition of conidial germination
of Venturia inaequalis, the causal agent of apple scab.
Similarly, the aqueous extracts obtained from anaerobically fermented spent mushroom substrates, significantly reduced the leaf area affected by V. inaequalis (1).
Ishida et al., (31) observed that the sprays of the aqueous
extracts of vermicompost with a concentration higher
than 50% and application twice a week reduced the severity of the zuchhini squash powdery mildew caused

53

by Sphaerothaeca fuliginea. Singh et al., (32), showed

that aqueous extracts of vermicompost inhibited spore
germination of several fungi at very low concentrations
0.001-0.5% and also effected the powdery mildew of
balsam and pea caused by Erysiphe cichoracearum and
Erysiphe pisi by inducing the synthesis of phenolic acids
which develops resistance in plants against diseases.
Orlikowski and Skrzypczak (33) reported that post
plant drenching of Pelargonium with 0.1% of keratin bark
urea extract protected 60% of plants against Phytophthora
nicotinae. A prophylactic spraying with keratin bark
urea extract at 0.1 and 0.2% significantly reduced the
spread of Myrothecium leaf spot in Pelargonium (34).
The extracts from bark urea, keratin bark urea granules,
vermicompost, Echinacea purpurea, grape fruit and garlic
preparation of furano coumarins and chitosan were
appeared to be effective against certain plant diseases.
Ma Li Ping et al., (35) observed that compost
extracts of horse and cow manure gave good control
compared to extracts obtained from goat and sheep
manure against cucumber downy mildew caused by
Pseudoperonospora cubensis under green house conditions
with relative efficacies of 67.33% and 66.1% compared
with untreated plants. The macerated extracts of horse,
cow and pig manure significantly reduced the incidence
of cucumber powdery mildew caused by Sphaerotheca
fuliginea by 72.3 79.7% compared with control (36).
Sackenheim et al., (37) reported that fermented
aqueous extracts of composted microbiologically active
substrates significantly reduced the infestation of grape
leaves by Plasmopara viticola under growth chamber
conditions. Brinton and Droffner (13) examined the
compost teas in relation to their development and use,
for controlling plant pathogenic fungi such as Venturia
inaequalis, Uncinula necator and Phytophthora infestans
and proved effective.
The compost extracts obtained from manure
straw composts and water extracts made by incubating
in water for 3-18 days, inhibited conidial germination
of Botrytis cinerea on glass slides and reduced mycelial
growth on agar (38).
Efficacy of sterilized compost teas
Yohalem et al., (30) reported that of anaerobically
fermented aqueous extracts of spent mushroom compost
maintained its inhibitive properties after filter sterilization and autoclaving. Similar observations were made
by Zhang et al., (39) who reported that the water extracts
were heat stable and then reduced the bacterial speck
disease of Arabidopsis even after passing through a 0.2
mm cellulose acetate membrane. Zhang et al., (40) also reported that autoclaving destroyed the systemic acquired
resistance inducing effect of the compost water extracts.
Non autoclaved organic compost extracts were

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

more effective compared to autoclaved extracts in reducing the mycelial growth of Colletotrichum sp, Alternaria
solani, Botrytis cinerea, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Sclerotium
rolfsii, Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.
lycopersici (22). Cronin et al.,(41) confirmed that extracts
filtered with 0.1 mm pore sized membranes were most
effective in reducing the apple scab compared to autoclaved extracts.
Otero et al., (42) studied on the micro filtration and
reported that 100% of yeasts and molds and more than
90% of bacteria were retained on the 1.4 mm membrane
filter.
Efficacy of stored compost teas
The anaerobically fermented extract of spent
mushroom substrate maintained disease suppressing
efficacy after storage at -200C, 40C and at room temperature for at least 4 months (30). Time or storage conditions
had no effect on the inhibitory activity of the extracts
from one of the spent mushroom substrate sources.
Decline in efficacy of the other source was apparent by
13 weeks, relative to unstored compost, not between
storage regimens (1).
Extracts of fresh composted municipal waste reduced mycelial growth in vitro whereas suppressiveness
of composted municipal waste from the same batch was
lost after storage because of the presence of acetic acid
at higher concentration in fresh composted municipal
waste than in stored composted municipal waste which
suppressed colony growth (84).
Aerobic compost tea fermented with fungal additive had pH of 8.5, (48). Sylvia et al., (85) studied the
chemical and biological properties of compost water
extracts and reported that the extracts prepared from
chicken manure and cattle manure recorded pH of 7.33
and 7.57 and an electrical conductivity of 2.47 ds/cm
and 0.51 ds/cm respectively and these factors effects
the quality and storability of compost teas.

BENEFITS AND MODE OF ACTION OF COMPOST

TEA
The primary benefit of the compost teas will be a
supply of soluble nutrients, which can be used as liquid
fertilizer (2). In addition to the nutrition they can be used
potentially for plant disease suppression (9). Compost
tea (10) has been used to suppress various fruit and vegetable diseases (11,12,13). Compost teas can be sprayed
to provide resistance against pathogens (14).
Compost teas are very beneficial in plant disease
management. So, they can be included in the integrated
disease management of field and horticultural crops (11,
15, 16). Addition of this organic extracts to growing
media encouraged the growth of benign organisms,

54

which suppress the plant diseases (17).

Compost teas show multiple modes of activity
in suppressing plant diseases, like induced resistance,
antibiosis and competition. Regardless of the mode of
action, preventive application before pathogen infection appears necessary for optimal control through all
known mode of actions (4). Multiple modes of activity
are involved in suppressing plant disease with non
aerated compost tea. No studies have determined the
mechanisms involved with aerobic compost tea.
David Hutchinson (18) enlisted four possible
modes of action of compost tea against pathogens. These
include, induced resistance against pathogens, inhibition
of spore germination, inhibition of lesion expansion, and
antagonism and competition with pathogen. A particular compost tea may have a specific mode of action for
a specific pathogen, rendering it effective or ineffective.
Though the compost tea shows promise as a disease suppressive technique, the inconsistency of control
is a major risk factor. Much more research is needed on
specific combinations of crops, pathogen, type of compost tea, and application procedures.
Compost microflora
Composts and compost products are highly variable in their suppressiveness against foliar diseases (43,
44). Microbial antagonists in composts that induce the
disease suppressive effects have not been identified.
Except Bacillus strains, microbes in general, do not
survive at high temperatures phase of the composting
process (45). This microflora colonises composts after
peak heating during curing of composts. Specific inoculations have been proposed to enhance the process of
colonization by beneficial microbe in the composts. (45).
During composting readily available carbon sources are
destroyed, where as lignin and lignin protected cellulose
are conserved (46). The organic fraction in cured composts therefore consists large lignins, microbial biomass
and humic substances. The lignin and lignin protected
cellulose determine the longevity of compost for their
suppressive effect on diseases (47).
Among all compost teas produced with or without
fungal or bacterial additives, there was no significant
relation ship of bacterial population, measured as active
cells, total cells to disease suppression. However for all
aerobic compost tea produced with the molasses based
additive, there was a threshold of bacterial population
density (610 active cells per ml, 7.4810 total cells per ml or
710 cfu/ml) above which compost teas were suppressive
(48).
The compost extracts causes phytotoxicity when
prepared from immature compost. The phytotoxic
products produced during fermentation of compost
teas from high C/N ratio composts due to excessive

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

concentrations of ammonical nitrogen associated with
inadequately matured composts low C/N ratio composts. (49). Extracts from such immature composts may
also contain concentration of nutrients like glucose and
aminoacids etc., This support the both beneficial and
adverse microorganisms (50).
Mesophilic fungi like Aspergillus niger, A. flavus,
Mucor sp., Fusarium sp., and Rhizoctonia sp., thermophilic
fungi like A. fumigatus and A. nidulans were isolated and
identified by Ganesh and Thakre (51) from the compost
made from broccoli that is Brassica oleracea var. italica. A
great variety and high numbers of aerobic thermophilic
heterotropic microbes that are playing critical roles in
stability of composts have been examined in the final
composts by Kim et al., (52) and shown that these were
108 to 1010 cfu/g in mesophilic bacteria, 103 to 104 in fungi
and 106 to 108 in actinomycetes, respectively.
Experimental results of metabolites analysis led
Fan et al., (53) to the conclusion that Clostridium sp. predominated in the anaerobic composts. Muhammad and
Amusa (54) reported that Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma
harzianum, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis were the
microbes found associated with cow dung, saw dust
and rice husk composted soils.
All composts made from chicken manure increased
organic matter content, total biological activity, and populations of actinomycetes, fluorescent pseudomonads,
and fungi (55). Dianez et al., (56) performed antagonist
in vitro assays with 432 microbial morphologies isolated
from grape marc compost.
Bacteria having strong chitinolytic activity were
isolated from coastal soils composted with 25% crab
shell, 20% vermiculite, 40% rice straw, 10% rice bran,
1% N, 2% rock phosphate, 0.5% K2O, 0.5% silicate, and
1% inoculant containing chitinolytic bacteria. The bacteria inhibited the mycelial growth of Rhizoctonia solani
KACC-40111 and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici
KACC-40037 on potato dextrose agar plate after inoculation (57). A fungal strain, OP1, with both cellulolytic
and pectinolytic activity was isolated from a spoiled
mikaan peel compost and a phylogenetic analysis
strongly suggested that OP1 is a novel species of the
genus Penicillium and they confirmed that OP1 plays
an important role in aerobic microbial degradation of
cellulose and pectin rich biomasses in soil ecology, and
further imply that this strain may be useful for both
simultaneous cellulase or pectinase production and
reduction of agricultural waste (58).
At different phases of composting of paddy straw
a thermophilic microbe Actinomyces sp. was found and it
was inhibitory to soil borne plant pathogens, e.g Fusarium oxysporum, Helminthosporium sativum (Cochliobolus
sativus) and Rhizoctonia solani (59).
Aryantha and Guest, (60) isolated bacteria and

55

fungi from composted chicken, sheep, cow and horse

manure and screened each isolate for their ability to suppress Phytophthora cinnamomi in dual culture in vitro assays. Of the 180 isolates, including 31 actinomycetes, 64
fungi, 44 fluorescent pseudomonads and 41 endospore
forming bacteria, 45 isolates significantly inhibited the
growth of P. cinnamomi on plates. The composts differed
from each other both qualitatively and quantitatively
with respect to their microbial composition. Bacteria
were found as the dominating group compared with
the fungi. Of the total 85 representative strains isolated
from different composts, most of the strains exhibited
a higher degree of antagonism towards R. solani and
Pythium ultimum than towards Verticillium longisporum
and Alternaria euteichus (61). A large number of microbes
appeared in microbiological analyses of grape marc compost, most of them were bacteria. Average percentages
were 31% mesophilic and 28% thermophilic bacteria,
16% mesophilic actinomycetes and 20% thermophylic
actinomycetes. A few mould and yeast morphologies
were obtained, 4% and 1% respectively (62).
Effect of compost tea on phylloplane microflora
Sturz et al.,(63) reported that both JF compost tea
and ASL powdered kelp were similar in their ability to
improve phyllobacteria communities recovered from
post treatment phylloplanes compared to Manzate 75
that derives little additive or synergistic plant protectant
properties from the naturally established phylloplane
microflora.
Local and systemic acquired resistance
Plants defend them selves from pathogen infection through a wide variety of mechanisms that can
be either local or systemic, constitutive or inducible
resistance (64, 65, 66). Systemic acquired resistance is a
broad physiological immunity that results from infection
with a necrotic pathogen. In addition to the pathogen,
certain natural and synthetic chemical compounds like
salicylic acid, jasmonates, systemin, ethylene, inorgonic
compounds, natural organic compounds etc., can trigger
similar plant responses (67). Apart from these chemicals
microbes and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria
are also known to induce systemic acquired resistance .
Zhang et al., (31) reported that compost teas also playing
role in inducing the SAR in plant system. Induction of
some defense related genes, as well as rapid increase
in oxidative burst is essential for establishing SAR (68).
Extracts from Bacillus subtilis have been reported
to induce resistance in barley, against powdery mildew
(69). Another class of agents are plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, apparently able to protect plants
against foliar diseases when used as a seed treatment
or by seed soaking. Wei et al., (70) reported that strains

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

of Pseudomonas was able to protect cucumber against a
range of diseases. A strain of Pseudomonas also protects
Carnation against Fusarium wilt. Protection was observed in a split root system in which the bacteria were
applied only to one part. Protection observed in the non
bacterised portion was attributed to an SAR response
(71). Lipopolysaccharides may be involved in this SAR
induction Process (72). Ellis et al., (73) reported that the
level of protection was at least as high as that achieved by
the necrotising, PR-inducing P.syringe pv. tomato, and the
spectrum was even broader indicating that the necrosis
is not a prerequisite for effective, biological induction of
resistance and the absence of PR after induction by P.
fluorescens does not lower the level of protection.
Zhang et al., (32) showed that compost teas significantly reduced the severity of bacterial speck caused
by Pseudomonas syringe pv. maculicola on Arabidopsis
plant grown in sphagnum peat mix that did not further
reduce the severity of bacterial speck when Arabidopsis
plants grown in a composted pine bark mix fortified with
Chryseobacterium gleum and Trichoderma hamatum 382.
The latter biocontrol agent induces systemic resistance in
plants where as C. gleum does not induce this effect (74).
Microbiostasis and the parasitism is one of the
key mechanisms of factors that make the compost and
compost teas effective in suppressing the soil and foliar
plant pathogens. However, SAR also can play a role
in biological control of diseases by foliar spraying of
compost teas. This systemic effect may explain the importance of composts in suppressing the pathogens that
cause symptoms on above ground parts (75). Induced
systemic resistance duo to compost teas has been shown
to play a role in suppression of plant pathogens that
colonise aerial plant parts (76). Zhang et al., (31) showed
that inoculation of a compost amended potting mix with
Trichoderma hamantum 382 triggerd an indirect effect
in Arabidopsis against bacterial speck and its pathogen
Pseudomonas syringe pv. maculicola and in cucumber
against anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare.
This compost mediated systemic induced resistance
correlated with increased -1-3 glucanase activity but
not until after these plants had been challenged with the
pathogen. This suggested that these composts elicited
induced systemic resistance (77, 78) rather than systemic
acquired resistance in plants (79). Pharand et al., (76)
corroborated this findings by showing that incorporation of composted paper mill sludge into a peat based
potting mix induced the formation of physical barriers
at infection sites in tomato which limited colonization of
the host by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis lycopersici.
Inoculation of compost amended potting mixes
with microorganisms that can trigger induced resistance
also seems to enhance systemic activity (31, 32, 76).
Topical sprays with water extract prepared from

56

the compost mix reduced symptoms of bacterial speck

and the population size of pathogenic Pseudomonas
syringe pv. maculicola KD4326 in Arabidopsis grown in
the peat mix but not in the compost mix but the peat
mix water extract applied as a spray did not control
bacterial speck on plants. -1,3-Glucanase activity was
low in cucumber plants grown in either mix, but when
infected with C. orbiculare, this activity was induced to
significantly higher levels in plants grown in the compost mix than in plants grown in the peat mix. Similar
results were obtained for -D-glucuronidase activity
driven by a PR2 ( -1,3-glucanase) gene promoter in
transgenic Arabidopsis plants grown in the compost or
peat mix. -D-glucuronidase activity was induced with
topical sprays of the compost water extract or salicylic
acid in plants not inoculated with the pathogen, suggesting that compost induced disease suppression involved the potentiation of resistance responses and that
compost induced SAR that differed from SAR induced
by pathogens, salicylic acid, or compost water extract
(31). Activity of the compost extracts was more similar
to the results reported by Lawton et al., (80) in the SAR
induction with acibenzolar-S-methyl.
Apart from the microorganisms that colonise
composts after peak heating the composition, the
decomposition level or stability of the organic matter
in composts seems to contribute to compost induced
systemic resistance (35). Highly stabilized sources of organic matter that are low in microbial carrying capacity,
do not support systemic effects (76). This supports the
role of substrate composition in sustained suppression
of diseases caused by plant pathogens (81).
Therefore apart from microorganisms that colonise composts after peak heating, organic matter
decomposition level should also be considered in any
evaluation of systemic resistance induced by composts
and compost teas.
Compost teas supply significant quantities of plant
nutrients, which vary depending on with the substrates
from which composts are made. Iron affects the SAR
induced by rhizobacteria (82). Fertility effect of composts
on disease severity can be significant (83) and should be
considered while comparing the role in inducing the
systemic acquired resistance.
Pioneer work by Zhang et al.,(31, 32) about the role
of composts and compost water extracts in establishing
the SAR was proved that the mode of establishment
through synthetic chemicals, biological agents and organic materials is different.
CONCLUSION
The role of compost teas on various aspects like
disease management, microbial population in compost
teas and their survival on phylloplane of chrysanthe-

Int. J. Innov. Biol. Res. 2:1 (2013)

mum, role in inducing the local and systemic acquired
resistance is confirmed. The mode of action of each
compost tea may vary because of certain factors like,
substrates, microbes, presence of chemical substances
etc., Survival of compost tea originated antagonistic
microorganisms on phylloplane, induction of local and
systemic acquired resistance were the possible mode
of action of compost teas. Inhibition of mycelial growth
of pathogen, inhibition of spore germination also make
the compost teas effective in crop disease management.
A particular compost tea may have a specific mode of
action for a specific pathogen, rendering it effective.
The four possible modes of action of compost tea
against pathogens includes, induced resistance against
pathogens, inhibition of spore germination, inhibition
of lesion expansion, and antagonism and competition
with pathogen.
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