View article

The avocado-producing area of southern Spain includes conventional orchards and organic orchards that use different organic amendments. To gain insight into the effects of these amendments, physicochemical properties and microbial communities of the soil were analysed in a representative set of commercial and experimental orchards.

The population size of several groups of culturable microorganisms was determined by plating on different selective media. Bacterial community structure was studied by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)

Commercial composts showed the largest effects, especially the animal compost, enhancing the population sizes of some microbial groups and affecting bacterial community structure in superficial and deep soil layers. Moreover …