Phytotoxicity Assessment of Biofertilizer Produced from Bioreactor Composting Technology Using Lettuce (<i>Lactuca sativa</i> L.) Seeds

Abstract

Establishing reliable technological information on the safety of biofertilizers produced from a bioreactor composting technique is a must prior to its commercialization. A phytotoxicity study of biofertilizer made from the bioreactor composting technology at Aklan State University, Banga, Aklan, Philippines was conducted for fourteen (14) days using commercially available lettuce seeds ( Lactuca sativa L.). Standard phytotoxicity attributes such as hypocotyl length, radicle length, relative germination percentage, and relative radicle growth observed during the germination stage were evaluated. Results revealed no significant difference in the radicle lengths of the germinated lettuce seeds as affected by the varying levels of biofertilizer dilution at H(3) = 10.567, p = 0.061 > 0.05. On the other hand , the hypocotyl length of the lettuce showed significant differences in response to varying levels of biofertilizer dilution with Welch’s F(5, 5.163) = 8.175, p = 0.017 < 0.05. Also, the different levels of biofertilizer affected significantly the germination percentage of lettuce seeds F(5, 12) = 5.822, p = 0.006 < 0.05. All levels of biofertilizer treatments indicated a decrease in relative germination percentage. However, those seeds applied with 10% biofertilizer have the highest reduction of germination percentage, equivalent to 86.9% (RGP = 13.10%). All levels of biofertilizer showed an increase in radicle growth in contrast to the negative control plant except for the one given a 10% level of biofertilizer. Seeds that received 10% biofertilizer showed an extremely high reduction in radicle growth, equivalent to 72.22% (RRG = 27.78%). The study shows that applying low levels of the bioreactor-produced biofertilizer will observably reduce the measure of the germination characteristics of lettuce seeds, but not necessarily low enough to be considered phytotoxic. However, the application of at least 10% bioreactor-produced biofertilizer can presumptively lead to phytotoxicity.