Enriched pressmud vermicompost production with green manure plants using Eudrilus eugeniae

Ramalingam Balachandar; Logalakshmanan Baskaran; Ananthanarayanan Yuvaraj; Ramasundaram Thangaraj; Ramasamy Subbaiya; Balasubramani Ravindran; Soon Woong Chang; Natchimuthu Karmegam

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122578

Enriched pressmud vermicompost production with green manure plants using Eudrilus eugeniae

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Mar:299:122578. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122578. Epub 2019 Dec 10.

Authors

Ramalingam Balachandar¹, Logalakshmanan Baskaran², Ananthanarayanan Yuvaraj³, Ramasundaram Thangaraj³, Ramasamy Subbaiya⁴, Balasubramani Ravindran⁵, Soon Woong Chang⁵, Natchimuthu Karmegam⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biotechnology, Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology, Vinayaka Missions Research Foundation (Deemed to be University), Paiyanoor, Chennai 603 104, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India.
³ Vermitechnology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Periyar University, Salem 636 011, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Department of Biotechnology, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha Nagar, Chennai 602 105, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁵ Department of Environmental Energy and Engineering, Kyonggi University, Youngtong-Gu, Gyeonggi-Do 16227, South Korea.
⁶ Department of Botany, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Salem 636 007, Tamil Nadu, India. Electronic address: kanishkarmegam@gmail.com.

PMID: 31865155
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122578

Abstract

Vermicomposting of pressmud with cow dung and nitrogenous green manures (Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala) was carried out using Eudrilus eugeniae (50 days). The reduction in pH, total organic carbon, C/N ratio, water-soluble organic carbon (C_ws)/N_org and C/P ratios, and a pronounced increase in NPK contents and microbial population in vermicompost were observed. An enhanced TKN of 3.80% and 3.45% was recorded in vermicomposts of pressmud + cow dung + L. leucocephala (2:1:1) and pressmud + cow dung + G. sepium (2:1:1) respectively. The C/N and C_ws/N_org ratios in vermicompost ranged from 11.86 to 16.66 and 0.53 to 1.33, respectively. The activity of dehydrogenase, urease, acid and alkaline phosphatase declined towards the end, indicating the progression of vermicompost maturity. The pressmud and green manure substrates promoted more biomass of E. eugeniae, while cow dung with green manure combination favored reproduction. The amendment of cow dung and green manure plants to pressmud (2:1:1 ratio) results in nutrient-enriched vermicompost production.

Keywords: Enriched vermicompost; Eudrilus eugeniae; Gliricidia sepium; Leucaena leucocephala; Pressmud.

MeSH terms

Animals
Carbon
Cattle
Female
Manure*
Nitrogen
Oligochaeta*
Soil

Substances

Manure
Soil
Carbon
Nitrogen