A STANDARDIZED METHOD FOR TESTING THE DECAY OF PLANT DIASPORES IN BIOWASTE COMPOSTS BY USING TOMATO SEED

Hygienic safety is an absolute requirement for utilizing biowaste comp osts. This includes the requirement of freedom of viable plant diaspor es as seeds or vegetative propagation materials. A standardized method for testing the decay of viable plant diaspores by determining the su rvival of the well proven long-lived tomato seeds as indicator is desc ribed. The tomato seeds are inserted into the biowaste prior to compos ting. By determining the loss of viability of the tomato seeds during composting the decay of plant diaspores is tested. A statistically bas ed model of the sample positioning and the sample number is presented. The sampling procedure, the sample preparation and the testing of the decay of the tomato seeds by the topographical tetrazolium test and/o r by the germination test are discussed. The usefulness of the method was demonstrated in 3 different biowaste composting systems.