Biodegradation of plantain rachis using phytopathogenic fungi for composting

The phytopathogenic fungi such as: Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Rhizopus stolonifer were isolated from banana andtomatoes respectively, 3 treatments were used: with spores Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (B1), with spores Rhizopus stolonifer(B2) and a mixture of spores Colletotrichum gloeosporioides + Rhizopus stolonifer (B3). Using the treatment (B3) was obtainedthe highest degradation of the plantain rachis being of 42.91%, and the leachates production was of 80 mL with pH of 7.96 onthe 30th day of the experimentation. The banana rachis degraded by the mixture of spores of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides +Rhizopus stolonifer (B3) showed the lowest organic carbon content being of 29.52% and the highest organic nitrogen content being of 2.30%, generating a Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 12.84%. The results evidenced that the treatment composed by themixture of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides + Rhizopus stolonifer (B3) can be used to increase the degradation of the plantainrachis encouraging the use of this biomass in the composting process.