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Isolation and identification of fungal communities in compost and vermicompost

     Department of Plant Biology, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125, Turin, Italy

This research illustrates the qualitative and quantitative composition of the mycoflora of both a green compost (thermophilically produced from plant debris) and a vermicompost (mesophilically produced by the action of earthworms on plant and animal wastes after thermophilic preconditioning). Fungi were isolated using three media (PDA, CMC, PDA plus cycloheximide), incubated at three temperatures (24, 37 and 45 C). Substantial quali-quantitative differences in the species composition of the two composts were observed. The total fungal load was up to 8.2 x 10⁵ CFU/g dwt in compost and 4.0 x 10⁵ CFU/g dwt in vermicompost. A total of 194 entities were isolated: 118 from green compost, 142 from vermicompost; 66 were common to both. Structural characterization of this kind is necessary to determine the most appropriate application of a compost and its hygienic quality.

Key words: compost, compost hygiene, compost quality, earthworms, fungi