VARIATION IN ORGANIC CARBON CONTENT AND CARBON NITROGEN RATIO IN VERMICOMPOST AS AFFECTED BY SUBSTRATE STRAW
ANAND KUMAR*, R. K. GUPTA AND SURESH KUMAR
Department of Zoology and Aquaculture
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : anand_rozha@yahoo.co.in)
(Received : 5 January 2017; Accepted : 25 April 2017)
SUMMARY
The field experiment was carried out to study the variation in organic carbon content and carbon nitrogen (C/N) ratio in different crop straws used as substrate during the process of vermicomposting during 2011-12 in CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. In the present experiment, the agricultural wastes like wheat straw, millet straw, pulse brawn, mustard straw and cow dung were used as substrates for vermicomposting and the decrease in organic carbon (%) was observed for 90 days. Maximum reduction in organic carbon was found to be 25.6 to 5.7 per cent after 90 days in cow dung substrate during the composting process and maximum reduction in C/N ratio was found to be 40.12 to 6.55 after 90 days in mustard straw + cow dung. Thus, over the course of the composting and vermicomposting the concentration of organic carbon declined up to 90 days (after the release of earthworms).
Key words: Crop straw, organic carban, C/N ratio, vermicompost, earthworms