The use of agro-industrial wastes as carriers of Trichoderma fungi in the parsley cultivation

•Granulates T-GRAN were composed from fruit and vegetable wastes.•T-GRAN are good medium for Trichoderma harzianum, T. virens, T. atroviride fungi.•T-GRAN affected positively the growth of parsley and also the soil microorganisms.•T-GRAN overgrowing by Trichoderma fungi affected positively the growth of parsley.

In present work we used selected organic agro-industrial wastes and by-products as a medium for antagonistic Trichoderma fungi. In order to facilitate the storage and applications, mixtures of wastes were prepared in the form of a granulate described as T-GRAN (patent application no. P.402840). The medium consisted of: an apple and strawberry pomace from the processing of these fruits, a dry onion rind, a waste rising up from the onion production and rapeseed meal from oil production. In this study we investigated the effect of T-GRAN overgrowing by selected Trichoderma strains on the growth of parsley (Petroselinum crispum) cv. Halblange. The obtained results showed that the granulate T-GRAN was a very good medium for Trichoderma strains. It affected positively the growth of parsley seedlings and soil microbial population. The highest increase of parsley seedling mass, 378% compare to the control treatment, was observed after amendments of soil with T-GRAN overgrowing with Trichoderma harzianum TRS 59 isolate.