Compost product safety and quality assurance are required to meet the needs of the horticultural, agricultural, and silvicultural user markets. At present, there exist no industry-wide sampling and testing protocols for compost products, thus limiting the production sector. The objective of this research was to test three methods for determining compost maturity. The study followed the composti...

Composting has emerged as a valuable route for the disposal of urban waste, with the prospect of applying composts on arable fields as organic amendments. Proper management of urban waste composts (UWCs) requires a capacity to predict their effects on carbon and nitrogen dynamics in the field, an issue in which simulation models are expected to play a prominent role. However, the parameterizati...

     Due to the environmental problems caused by the accumulation of significant amounts of waste from peanut cultivation, it seems necessary to provide a solution for the reuse of this organic waste. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to investigate the possibility of using compost of peanut shells in potting Begonia rex. This research was based on randomized complete block desi...

Compost-based media were examined for effects on plant growth of leafy lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in pot culture. Four types locally sourced composts created using different proportions wood chips from untreated pallets and mixed tropical tree debris, food waste restaurants, chicken manure. prepared by mixing each compost with a commercial peatmoss to create 25, 50, 100% compost-peatmoss mixtu...

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of biochar-compost on availability P for maize cultivation in a concretionary Lixisol northern Ghana and residual soil characteristics thereof. Sawdust biochar co-composted with kitchen waste cow dung various proportions. Four biochar-composts were selected based their superior carbon available content, lower pH, electrical conductivity (...

Outbreaks of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections associated with lettuce and other leaf crops have occurred with increasing frequency in recent years. Contaminated manure and polluted irrigation water are probable vehicles for the pathogen in many outbreaks. In this study, the occurrence and persistence of E. coli O157:H7 in soil fertilized with contaminated poultry or bovine ...

This study reports a pilot experiment of composting of anaerobically digested sewage sludges deriving from the production of biogas in a wastewater treatment plant. Two composting piles (about 15 m(3) each) were prepared by mixing 50% and 30% (v/v) sludges with lignocellulosic material. The composting process was monitored through determination of the main physicochemical properties. The stabil...