United Kingdom: Tree fungus reduces fertilizer requirement for ketchup tomatoes

Published 2021년 3월 31일

Tridge summary

A study published in the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found a way to grow tastier tomatoes using less fertilizer. The research, led by Jianguo Huang, used the HG2011 strain of Ceriporia lacerata, a fungus that can improve nutrient uptake and growth in tomato plants. The fungus was found to promote enzyme activity in the soil and increase the tomatoes' nutrient uptake and yield in both fertilized and unfertilized soils. The fungus also enhanced the nutrition and flavor of the tomatoes by increasing their sugar-acid ratio, soluble sugar, and vitamin C content. The team suggests that compost from this fungus could be a cheap supplement to reduce the need for chemical fertilizer.

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Original content

Tomatoes are an important and popular crop, but the tasty ketchup, salsa and pasta sauce they yield comes at a price: overuse of chemical fertilizers. Now, researchers report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry they have recruited a fungus to bolster fertilizer efficiency, meaning tastier tomatoes can be grown with less fertilizer. Tomato plants have a long growth period and need more nutrients—particularly nitrogen and phosphorus— than many other crops. Supplying these nutrients through a chemical fertilizer is inefficient, because the nutrients can leach away, evaporate or get trapped in insoluble compounds in the soil, among other problems. Some farmers react by overusing fertilizers to boost tomato yield, but this results in poor fruit quality, ...

Source: Phys