Pedosphere 22(6): 815--824, 2012
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2012 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
Humic-like substances from different compost extracts could significantly promote cucumber growth
XU Da-Bing, WANG Qiu-Jun, WU Yun-Cheng, YU Guang-Hui, SHEN Qi-Rong and HUANG Qi-Wei
Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095 (China)
ABSTRACT
      The effects of direct extracts of compost (DEC), aerated fermentation extracts of compost (AFEC) and non-aerated fermentation extracts of compost (NAFEC) on cucumber growth and the action mechanisms were evaluated based on the structure and activity analysis of humic-like substances. AFEC increased cucumber growth most significantly, followed by DEC and NAFEC, which was insignificant compared to the control treatment. Humic-like substances from compost extracts played an important role in promoting cucumber growth. Application of humic-like substances stimulated auxin-like activity and increased chlorophyll content and nitrogen accumulation in plants. The positive auxin-like activity of humic-like substances could be attributed to the relative distribution of special carbon groups, such as those with a large amount of peptidic and carbohydratic groups or with a low content of phenolic groups. In conclusion, the best growth promotion by application of AFEC was mainly attributed to the humic-like substances in the AFEC.
Key Words:  auxin-like activity, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance, chemical structure, elemental composition analysis
Citation: Xu, D. B., Wang, Q. J., Wu, Y. C., Yu, G. H., Shen, Q. R. and Huang, Q. W. 2012. Humic-like substances from different compost extracts could significantly promote cucumber growth. Pedosphere. 22(6): 815-824.
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