Abstract
Abstract Some species of earthworms have great ability to breakdown the organic wastes and transform them to vermicompost. It is very important to optimize the growth conditions and earthworms reproduction to achieve high efficiency in vermicompost production. In this study the effect of aeration, soil and sugar beet molasses on the number of adult and juvenile worms, cocoons and earthworm biomass were studied in a completely randomized design with 8 treatments. Sugar beet molass had the highest influence on the number of adult and juvenile earthworms, cocoon and biomass. Aeration had a significant effect on the number of juvenile worms, cocoons, and earthworm biomass, although it had negative effect on adult worms. Treatments with soil increased the number of cocoons and biomass significantly, however, had no significant effect on the number of adult and juvenile earthworms. The highest amount of earthworm biomass was obtained during the seventh and eighth weeks of experiment and decreased afterwards. The earthworm growth rate in treatments with sugar beet molass was much higher than control. Key words: Earthworm, biomass, growth rate, sugar beet, molass, vermicompost
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