|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Battling Phytophthora (jarrah dieback) could be an added bonus of a renewable energy system under investigation at the Centre for Organic Waste Management, based at Murdoch University.Dr Ralf Cord-Ruwisch, who completed the initial testing of a biogas/compost system developed by local company Organic Resources Technology (ORT), recently noticed the product of different compost processes could completely inhibit the growth of phytophthora in the laboratory. “While it is known that compost can suppress the growth of the dieback fungus, it was interesting to discover that the process and conditions of the compost (temperature, moisture, oxygen, duration) makes the difference,” said Dr Cord-Ruwisch. “In our study, some compost extracts did not at all inhibit the fungus, while others inhibited even at very low concentrations.” Dr Cord-Ruwisch said the ORT biogas/compost system (patented as DiCom) produced a compost with very good inhibitory effect of the fungus. “There is therefore potential to create a biological dieback control agent from solid waste, as well as a renewable source of biogas,” he said Dr Cord-Ruwisch and Murdoch dieback expert Dr Giles Hardy are currently perfecting sophisticated computer controlled composting techniques and conducting large scale field trials of the technology. |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Editor: Pepi Smyth
Produced by the ">Office
of Community Relations, Murdoch
University |
||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||
