Vermiconversion of leaf wastes ( Ficus benghalensis and Ficus racemosa ) by employing Eudrilus eugeniae

At present, one of the most important intimidations for human is the disposal of different organic waste . These wastes include tree leaves, garden wastes, agricultural wastes etc. Leaves are potential sources of valuable nutrients providing a high quality of organic matter, which should be returned to the soil. The leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. The nutrient fluxes from the trees to soil via litter. Using this rich natural fertilizer makes less reliance on chemical fertilizers which are major pollutants entering the environment. Leaf litter can be utilized as manure by vermicomposting. This study reports the results of vermicomposting with Eudrilus eugeniae of ficus benghalensis and ficus racemosa mixed with cowdung in different ratios (1:1 and 2:1) in a 90 days experiment. In all the treatments a decrease in pH ,TOC and C/N ratio , whereas increase in EC, TN, TP, TK, Ca and Mg was recorded. The cocoon production and growth rate ( biomass gain worm -1 day -1 ) were maximum in T1 mixture containing leaves of ficus benghalensis and cowdung in (1:1) ratio followed by T2 ,T4 ,T3 and T0 respectively. The results indicate that eventhough both the leaves selected for the study belongs to the same genus ficus with immense medicinal value they differ in their allelochemical composition which greatly influenced the palatability of E. Eugeniae. Thus vermicomposting is the sustainable ,low – cost and easy solution for the beneficial utilization of such huge quantities of dry leaves.