A comparative study on the culture practices of eisenia fetida and lampito mauritii earthworms using sheep droppings, press mud and pongamia leaves and a pilot study on the cultivation of black gram (vigna mungo) using vermicomposts

Abstract

Organic materials such as sheep droppings, press mud and Pongamia leaves selected for this research work were first separately decomposed partially in large cement tanks for a period of 60, 45 and 180 days, respectively to provide feeding materials to earthworms and manure to black gram plant. From these 3 partly decomposed organic materials, an organic mixture (1:1:1 ratio) was prepared to test its impact along with other organic materials. It is a point to mention here that out of 3 organic materials used in the culture study of E. fetida and L. mauritii, the latter species exposed to higher doses of press mud (75 and 100 PSR), did not survive even for a short time and hence the culture study of the same was made only up to 50 PSR dose of press mud. Rate of cocoon and hatchling production, hatching success, incubation time and body weight change of adult earthworms kept in different PSR doses (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75 and 100) of sheep droppings, press mud, Pongamia leaves and organic mixture for 30 days were determined to ascertain their reproductive efficiency. Though adult earthworms kept in different doses of organic materials showed overall improved values in their body weight at the time of cocoon production, the weight gains observed in E. fetida exposed to 75 and 10 PSR doses of sheep droppings, and L. mauritii exposed to 50 PSR dose of sheep droppings and 10 PSR dose of organic mixture, respectively were the highest and lowest among the 7 PSR doses of organic materials studied. The control adult earthworms (exclusively kept in soil for 30 days), on the other hand, showed significant reduction in their body weight and produced only a very meager number of cocoons though none were died during the course of this study. The rate of cocoon production observed in E. fetida exposed to 50 PSR dose of Pongamia leaves and 10 PSR dose of sheep droppings, and L. mauritii exposed to 40 PSR dose of sheep droppings and 10 PSR dose of press mud, respectively was the highest (0.100 and 0.099 C/W/D, respectively)