Effect of biochar supplementation on growth, reproduction, Enzyme level and Humification index on the vermicomposting with pressmud as substrate
- DOI
- 10.2991/978-94-6463-648-2_2How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- vermicomposting; pressmud; vermitransformation; biochar; earthworm
- Abstract
Vermicomposting is the traditional method of biodegradation of organic compound into nutrient humus that helps in plant growth Pressmud is one of the waste products of the sugarcane industry with a rich organic composition. In this study, the pressmud is subjected to vermitransformation integrated with biochar. The biochar is amended at varied concentrations (0,2, 4 and 6%) with Pressmud and cow dung in three different compositions (1:1, 2:1 and 3:1) using Eudrlius eugeniae to generate an enhanced vermicompost. In the vermicompost combinations supplemented with biochar, there was increased growth and biomass of earthworms with the maximum observed in C7 (PM+CD (2:1) amended with 4% Biochar and C4 (PM+CD (1:1) amended with 6% biochar respectively. Microbial and Enzyme level analysis showed that a combination supplemented with biochar showed better results than the combinations without biochar. Overall Combination C3 (PM+CD (2:1) amended with 4% Biochar showed the best result in Microbial and enzyme analysis with the maximum achieved in 45th day. Humification was also better in the biochar-supplemented combinations with the lowest humification index observed in C3 (0.6820±0.027) and C4 (0.6912±0.031) pressmud+cow dung amended with 4% and 6% respectively in the final sample. This study shows that amendment of biochar at concentrations of 4% and 6% with pressmud as substrate showed better activity in the growth and reproduction of earthworms. The humification activity of the substrate was also maximum in the combination of C3 and C4 supplemented with 4% and 6% biochar respectively.
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - V. K. Rekha AU - N. Karmegam AU - G. Abirami AU - M. Suganthi AU - M. Jayanthi AU - K. Ashok Kumar PY - 2025 DA - 2025/02/07 TI - Effect of biochar supplementation on growth, reproduction, Enzyme level and Humification index on the vermicomposting with pressmud as substrate BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on Bio-Based Environment for Sustainable Territory (ICBEST 2024) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 4 EP - 20 SN - 2468-5747 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-648-2_2 DO - 10.2991/978-94-6463-648-2_2 ID - Rekha2025 ER -