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Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth

Sustainable farming practices aim to replace agrochemicals with plant-based alternatives to increase productivity and soil quality. To evaluate the potential use of aromatic plants as soil amendments in tomato seedbeds, in a greenhouse experiment, we used spearmint, peppermint, and rosemary, separat...

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Autores principales: Argyropoulou, Maria D., Karmezi, Maria, Tsiafouli, Maria, Chalkos, Dimitris, Bountla, Areti, Vokou, Despoina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9394304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35892923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12081121
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author Argyropoulou, Maria D.
Karmezi, Maria
Tsiafouli, Maria
Chalkos, Dimitris
Bountla, Areti
Vokou, Despoina
author_facet Argyropoulou, Maria D.
Karmezi, Maria
Tsiafouli, Maria
Chalkos, Dimitris
Bountla, Areti
Vokou, Despoina
author_sort Argyropoulou, Maria D.
collection PubMed
description Sustainable farming practices aim to replace agrochemicals with plant-based alternatives to increase productivity and soil quality. To evaluate the potential use of aromatic plants as soil amendments in tomato seedbeds, in a greenhouse experiment, we used spearmint, peppermint, and rosemary, separately, as soil amendments, in pots sown with tomato, and studied their effect on seedling growth, soil nutrients, and the soil nematode community in terms of trophic and functional structure, metabolic footprint, and genera composition. Non-amended soil was used in the control pots. We further explored the dynamics of the plant–soil–nematode interactions by using aromatic plants at different stages of decomposition (0, 28, and 56 days). Incorporating aromatic plants into the soil led to the proliferation of free-living nematodes, especially of the opportunistic kind, resulting in vigorous and enriched soil. This was more pronounced in the case of the spearmint and peppermint, which also increased the tomato growth. The high soil nutritional status and enhanced plant growth were most prominent when the aromatic plants were left for 28 days to decompose in the soil before sowing. Compared with the mint plants, the rosemary had similar, yet less intense, effects on the soil community, but completely inhibited the growth of the tomato seedlings. Therefore, it is not recommended for use as a soil amendment in tomato seedbeds.
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spelling pubmed-93943042022-08-23 Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth Argyropoulou, Maria D. Karmezi, Maria Tsiafouli, Maria Chalkos, Dimitris Bountla, Areti Vokou, Despoina Life (Basel) Article Sustainable farming practices aim to replace agrochemicals with plant-based alternatives to increase productivity and soil quality. To evaluate the potential use of aromatic plants as soil amendments in tomato seedbeds, in a greenhouse experiment, we used spearmint, peppermint, and rosemary, separately, as soil amendments, in pots sown with tomato, and studied their effect on seedling growth, soil nutrients, and the soil nematode community in terms of trophic and functional structure, metabolic footprint, and genera composition. Non-amended soil was used in the control pots. We further explored the dynamics of the plant–soil–nematode interactions by using aromatic plants at different stages of decomposition (0, 28, and 56 days). Incorporating aromatic plants into the soil led to the proliferation of free-living nematodes, especially of the opportunistic kind, resulting in vigorous and enriched soil. This was more pronounced in the case of the spearmint and peppermint, which also increased the tomato growth. The high soil nutritional status and enhanced plant growth were most prominent when the aromatic plants were left for 28 days to decompose in the soil before sowing. Compared with the mint plants, the rosemary had similar, yet less intense, effects on the soil community, but completely inhibited the growth of the tomato seedlings. Therefore, it is not recommended for use as a soil amendment in tomato seedbeds. MDPI 2022-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9394304/ /pubmed/35892923 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12081121 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Argyropoulou, Maria D.
Karmezi, Maria
Tsiafouli, Maria
Chalkos, Dimitris
Bountla, Areti
Vokou, Despoina
Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title_full Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title_fullStr Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title_full_unstemmed Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title_short Soil Amendments with Spearmint, Peppermint and Rosemary Enhance the Community of Free-Living Nematodes and Improve Soil Quality, While Having Strikingly Different Effects on Plant Growth
title_sort soil amendments with spearmint, peppermint and rosemary enhance the community of free-living nematodes and improve soil quality, while having strikingly different effects on plant growth
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9394304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35892923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12081121
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