Chestnut leaf and burr composting techniques as alternatives to burning

Chestnut husks and leaves present several problems in their management. They must be removed from the field before the following year’s fruit fall to facilitate their harvest. In addition, they represent a source of inoculum of Gnomognopsis castaneae. For these reasons, in most cases chestnut crop residues are burnt, causing emissions into the atmosphere and risking the ignition of fires. Biomass management is a central issue on the road to greater sustainability in agriculture and its composting has often proven to be a viable solution, but chestnut crop residues have a high resistance to degradation due to their high C/N ratio. In order to find a solution to the problem, an experiment was set up to evaluate the feasibility of composting leaf and burr with the addition of different nitrogen-rich materials using a methodology that can be replicated even by small farms. The obtained results show that the degradation of the litter was enhanced by the addition of bovine manure and biostimulant Gobbi LG 135 compared to the control (no addition). In particular the formation of humus was the triple and the double of the control for bovine manure and Gobbi LG 135, respectively.