ORIGINAL ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1007/s10341-019-00437-1 Erwerbs-Obstbau The Effects of the Use of Vermicompost in Olive Tree Farming On Microbiological and Biochemical Characteristics of the Production Material Selçuk Göçmez 1 · Korkmaz Bellitürk 2 · Josef H. Görres 3 · Hatice Sevim Turan 4 · Özlem Üstündağ 1 · Yusuf Solmaz 2 · Aydın Adiloğlu 2 Received: 26 December 2017 / Accepted: 17 April 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2019 Abstract In this study, olive tree has been cultivated by applying vermicompost as the organic fertilizer with different doses (0, 5, 10, 20, 40%) and single dose of chemical fertilizer (100% production material+ chemical fertilizer) which is commonly used by the farmers of the region. During the experiment ’Gemlik’ olive has been grown in 36 pots with 6 applications, 3 replications and 2 seasons. The experiment was conducted in laboratory and under controlled conditions for 6 months. At the end of the third and sixth months, CO2-production analyses were applied to the production materials together with alkaline phosphatase and dehydrogenase enzyme activities. According to the experiment results, the effects of the production material applications on CO2 production, alkaline phosphatase and dehydrogenase enzyme activities have been considered as p < 0.01 significant statistically when the averages of 6-month trial process were examined. Keywords Vermicompost · Olive tree · Production material · CO2-production · Enzyme activity Einfuss des Einsatzes von Wurmkompost auf mikrobiologische und biochemische Eigenschaften des Kultursubstrates in der Olivenbaumkultur Schlüsselwörter Wurmkompost · Olivenbaum · Produktionsmaterial · CO2-Produktion · Enzymaktivität Introduction The years between 1950s and 60s in which the chemical fertilizers and agricultural pesticides began to be used and the rise in agricultural production was aimed were called as “Green Revolution”. The individuals or groups who real- ized that this rise in agricultural production had not brought any solution to the famine problem, on the contrary it de-  Selçuk Göçmez selcuk.gocmez@adu.edu.tr 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Aydin Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey 2 Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Tekirda˘ g Namik Kemal University, Tekirda˘ g, Turkey 3 Plant and Soil Sciences Department, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA 4 Olive Research Institute, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, ˙ Izmir, Turkey stroyed the natural balance, soil quality and human health, started to make some researches on this subject. Although the amount of production increased with the use of these chemicals, they killed the useful organisms in soil as a long term result by decreasing the soil yield and nutrient qual- ity (Adilo˘ glu and Adilo˘ glu 2005; Sinha and Herat 2009). This created a necessity of developing production systems that are beneficial for people and environment in order to re- store the ecological balance which were destroyed by wrong agricultural applications. On the other hand, the decreasing of the organic matters in soil as a result of conventional agricultural applications of mono culture farming (Adilo˘ glu and Sa˘ glam 2015), and new agricultural approaches such as the spreading of vermicompost technology, and the increas- ing tendency to organic agriculture became important needs both for environment and economy. Vermicompost is a material, which is produced by the absorption of organic material by worms, and it is reported that the positive effects on environment such as plant growth and soil recovery are higher than compost (Fritz et al. 2012; K