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Organic fertilizers may contribute substantially to improving yield, soil quality, and reducing the environmental impacts of conventional farming. This study investigates the effects of organic fertilizers, like green manure composed of hairy vetch (HV), livestock compost (LC), or a combination of the two (LC + HV), has on red pepper growth, yield, fruit quality, and soil microbial populations as compared to more commonly used chemical fertilizers. This study investigates the effects of different fertilizer treatments on red pepper growth, yield, quality, and soil microbial populations. The experimental plot treatments were no fertilizer (CON), chemical fertilizer, HV, LC and LC + HV. In these treatments, 70-day-old red pepper plants were grown for an additional 140 days under treatment conditions. Plant dry weight, macro- and micro-nutrient contents were analyzed. Post-harvest soil properties and cultivable soil microbial population were determined. HV and LC + HV treatments had significantly high leaf and stem dry weight. All the treatments increased T–N, P and Mg contents in plants and the highest uptake was recorded for plants fertilized with HV. After harvest, soil fertilized with LC + HV had higher soil organic matter and available P, K and Ca as compared to chemical fertilizers. In addition, soil fertilized with organic fertilizers had significantly more cultivable microbial populations than chemical fertilizers. Overall, these results suggest that organic fertilizers could be used to reduce the application of synthetic fertilizers and aiding sustainable agriculture.

Owing to the effect of symbiotic gut bacteria on the proliferation of infectious disease-transferring insects and their potential as paratransgenic tools, their identification or securing their use in controlling insect vectors is urgently needed. Bradysia agrestis is one of the major plant epidemic vectors in East Asia; however, its normal microbiota remains unstudied. This research was primarily designed to secure promising candidates for use in a paratransgenic approach to phytopathogen control, as well as to provide a picture of the gut microbiota of wild-caught B. agrestis from a blight field. A total of 180 larvae from three different regions in South Korea were analyzed for their gut microfloral composition. Diverse bacterial strains were purely isolated based on morphological differences in microbiological media. We found a total of 64 bacterial strains in the B. agrestis midgut and analyzed their 16S rRNA gene sequences for molecular identification and phylogenetic characterization. Furthermore, the microbial diversity of each normal microbiota group was analyzed with various diversity indices. Bacterial biota including species diversity, richness or species distribution, species constituents, and dominance varied by each regional vector group. The most widely distributed species was Bacillus aryabhattai, and the most common genera were Bacillus and Microbacterium. These saprophytic bacteria were isolated from all regional groups and their potential as paratransgenic candidates for controlling B. agrestis-mediated plant disease is discussed.