Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
SY Waghmode, AR Sasane, AP Gawade and RB Ghogare

Abstract:
An investigation pertaining to “Quality Assessment of Vermicompost and Vermiwash Prepared From litters of Horticultural Crops” was undertaken during the year 2020 – 2021 at Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Dist. Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. The experiment was laid out in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) With eight treatments and four replications using the leaf litters of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Coconut (Cocus nucifera), Areacanut (Areca catechu) and Sapota (Manilkara zapota) in combination with epigeic species of earthworms namely Eudrilus euginae and Eisenia foetida. The decomposer was used for rapid composting of leaves wastes and cattle dung was used as substrate. The results indicated that, the pH of vermicompost and vermiwash considerably decreased with increase in electrical conductivity throughout the composting period. In case of macronutrients in vermicompost, the Jackfruit leaf litter was found significantly superior with highest total nitrogen content (1.42%), highest total phosphorus content (0.51%) and highest total potassium content (1.06%). The lowest values of total N, P, K content (1.22%, 0.39%, 0.86%) respectively were observed in case of coconut leaf litter. In case of nutrient content in vermiwash, the maximum NPK content as 114.57 ppm, 30.84 ppm and 197.24 ppm respectively were noticed in case of jackfruit leaf waste at the end of composting period.