Abstract
Understanding the growth and reproductive efficiency of vermicomposting worms in various substrates is highly essential for effective utilization of earthworms in sustainable waste management system. The growth and reproductive performance of Eisenia fetida in rose, hypericum and carnation flower wastes was evaluated in this microcosm study. Determination of cocoon production rate, hatching success, number of hatchling, biomass and growth in all the three flower waste type were conducted in cylindrical plastic containers. The experiment were designed under three treatment: T1 (rose leftover + cow dung), T2 (hypericum leftover + cow dung) and T3 (carnation leftover + cow dung). Cocoon production started early (within 2 weeks of clitellated worm introduction) in T1 and T2, while it took 4 weeks in T3. The highest total number of cocoon was attained in T2 (178.3 ± 2.8), whereas the minimum cocoon number (109 ± 2.6) was recorded in T3. Significant difference was recorded between the cocoon production performance of E. fetida in all the three varieties of flower leftovers (P< 0.05). The highest total number of hatchlings (52 ± 0.88) was recorded in T1, while the least (30.33 ± 0.6) was observed in T3. Maximum weight increase (0.86 ± 0.006 g/worm) of E. fetida was observed in T1. The overall result of this study showed that better hatching success of cocoons and number of hatchling/cocoon were obtained by experimental species incubated in rose leftover. Key words: Carnation, Eisenia fetida, Hypericum, Rose, vermicompost.
Highlights
Earthworms are hermaphrodites, both male and female reproductive organs are present in every single earthworm but self-fertilization does not generally occur
Understanding the growth and reproductive efficiency of vermicomposting worms in various substrates is highly essential for effective utilization of earthworms in sustainable waste management system (Appelhof et al, 1996; Jesikha and Lekeshmanaswamy, 2013)
As huge amount of wastes can be managed through more population of earthworms (Garg and Kaushik, 2005), reproductive and growth performance of various species of earthworms in a range of substrates can act as useful biomarkers to measure the efficiency of an earthworm species in vermicomposting or earthworm based biotechnology (Suthar, 2007; Jesikha and Lekeshmanaswamy, 2013)
Summary
Earthworms are hermaphrodites, both male and female reproductive organs are present in every single earthworm but self-fertilization does not generally occur. In spite of various studies on reproductive and growth potential of popular vermicomposting species of earthworms, mainly on E. fetida, on a range of wastes from various origins, no study have been carried out on the life cycle pattern of this worm on commonly dumped and littered wastes in flower farms of Ethiopia. In view of this gap in knowledge, this study was carried out to evaluate the suitability of carnation, hypericum and rose wastes, which are hardy herbaceous plant (except hypericum) (Tah and Mamgain, 2013) for survival of the vermicomposting species, E. fetida in terms of growth and reproductive parameters
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