Abstract
Vermicompost (VC) products have grown in popularity in plant nutrition and are widely used to improve plant growth and suppress plant diseases. In addition, the choice of chemical-free food and increased public concern for human health and the environment due to the impacts of hazardous inorganic fertilizers have motivated farmers to seek safer and more eco-friendly alternatives. The present study aimed to evaluate the plant-growth-promoting and biocontrol potential of macrophyte biomass-based VC products in tomato plants. The results indicated that tomato plants treated with VC + vermicompost tea (VCT) resulted in 30.74% higher plant height, 20.70% more leaves, 29.05% more fruits, and 61.26% higher total yield than the control plants. In addition, VC products significantly reduced disease incidence by 35–60%, whereas the untreated control had the highest wilt incidence (75%). The study concludes that VC products produced from free-floating aquatic weed biomass (Azolla, Lemna, and Salvinia) could be used as a potential alternative to inorganic fungicides to manage Fusarium wilt disease and as bioinoculants to improve the growth and yield of tomato plants for sustainable crop production.
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