Potential of individual and combination of earthworm species in vermicomposting Salvinia Molesta, Mitchell

Abstract

Study is on the performance of earthworm species in vermicomposting salvinia was reported earlier. In this study on the performance of reactors inoculated with single species and combination of two or three species in vermicomposting salvinia is reported. The experiment was carried out on seven set of vermireactors, i.e. mono species - Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia fetida, Perionyx excavatus., di species - Eudrilus eugeniae +Eisenia fetida., Eisenia fetida + Perionyx excavatus., Perionyx excavatus + Eudrilus eugeniae and multi species - Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia fetida, Perionyx excavatus. The performance of multi–species reactor achieved conversion of about 67% of the feed mass (100 g dry wt,) per fortnight. The vermireactors were sustainable as the animals have remained consistently healthy and reproductive over a period of ten months.