Effect of Vermicompost Prepared from Aquatic Weeds on Growth and Yield of Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

A Gandhi,U Sivagama Sundari

doi:10.4172/2155-6202.10000128

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of vermicompost prepared from two different aquatic weeds on eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) growth and yield under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was conducted at the botanical garden of Annamalai University during December, 2011 to June, 2012. Vermicompost was prepared from cow dung and aquatic weeds i.e., Azolla and Eichhornia by using earthworms (Eudrilus eugeniae). The pot experiment was conducted with four treatments via T1–(Control), T2 (Cow dung), T3 (Azolla), and T4 (Eichhornia). The experimental results showed significant variations in plant growth and yield on par with the physico-chemical properties of different vermicomposts. The growth characters of brinjal such as plant height, number of leaves per plant were observed at 20th day, 40th day and 80th day from the date of planting. There was maximum value of growth parameters observed in egg plant treated with Azollavermicompost followed by Eichhornia-vermicompost and cow dung-vermicompost. The yield parameters such as number of days for flowering, number of fruits per plant and fruit length and width also showed similar trend of growth parameters. The investigation clearly reveals that the biochemical properties of vermicompost play a major role in the growth and development of egg plant.

Highlights

Increasing population of the world has doubled the food demands and inundated the available land sources [1]
Compost plays an important role for improving soil physical properties and contains higher levels of relatively available nutrient elements, which are essential for plant growth [12]
The heaps were turned up 7 days gap to accelerate decomposition and after 30 days, the pre-composted aquatic weed biomass were collected and fed to the earthworms during vermicomposting

Summary

Introduction

Increasing population of the world has doubled the food demands and inundated the available land sources [1]. The foliar application of humic acid on vegetables in brinjal increases growth and yield parameters when compared to chemical nitrogen fertilizers [10]. Compost plays an important role for improving soil physical properties and contains higher levels of relatively available nutrient elements, which are essential for plant growth [12].

Results

Conclusion