Vol. 2 (1) : January-February 2011 issue
Green Farming Vol. 2 (1) : 114-115 (January-February, 2011) (New Series)
Effects of different substrates (cattle-, poultry-, horse- and goat-dung) on nutritional status of vermicompost
AMRIT KAUR BANSAL1
Department of Veterinary Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana - 141 004 (Punjab)
Designation : 1Senior Research Fellow
Subject : Organic Agriculture, Organic Farming and Hi-tech Agriculture
Paper No. :
Total Pages : 2
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Revised accepted :
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Citation :
AMRIT KAUR BANSAL. 2011. Effects of different substrates (cattle-, poultry-, horse- and goat-dung) on nutritional status of vermicompost. Green Farming Vol. 2 (1) : 114-115 (January-February, 2011) (New Series)
ABSTRACT
In view of the recycling of different types of organic waste by using vermitechnology, the efforts were made to evaluate the impacts of different substrates (cattle-, poultry-, horse- and goat-dung) on the nutritional status of vermicompost. 'Eisenia foetida' species of earthworm was employed to prepare vermicompost from these four substrates. Four vermibeds ( containing different substrates ) with standardized dimensions (length -6, width -3 , depth -2 - feets) ) were made and water was sprinkled over them regularly. In all the four beds, vermicompost was ready in 45-50 days. Digestion of the vermicompost prepared from these four substrates was done by using acid mixture of HNO3 & HClO4 and percentages of minerals such as nitrogen (N), carbon(C), hydrogen (H), sulphurs (S), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) were estimated by using Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma- Absorption Electro spectrophotometer (ICAP-AES) instrument .Results show that percentages of N and P are maximum in compost prepared from horse dung. Percentages of C, H, K and S are maximal in compost of cattle and poultry dung, respectively. N and P are the essential minerals for the growth of plants and their extents are found maximum in horse dung. Therefore, it is concluded that horse dung is the best among all the four substrates used in vermicomposting.
Key words :
Dung substrates, Eisenia foetida, earthworm, horse dung, organic manure, organic waste, vermicompost.