Table 1 shows the values of ready vermicompostprepared from domestic waste. Data clearly indicatedthat inoculation of earthworm in domestic waste causedsignificant changes in the chemical composition ofwaste. The pH values were lower in vermicompost thanthe initial material and a reduction was recordedbetween the ranges of 11.3 and 13.2%. Organic Cshowed a significant (P <0.05) loss, i.e. 36.8% (P.excavatus) and 37.2% (P. sansibaricus) in vermibedsby the end of the experiment (Table 1), but the differencein both species for organic C content reduction wasnot statistically significant (t-test: P = 0.764). Totalk je ld a h l n itr o g e n content increased between 85.0 (P.excavatus) and 95.6% (P. sansibaricus) in the studiedsubstrates by the end of the experiment (Table 1).As compared with the control beddings, theearthworm showed 1.6-1.7 fold increment in the totalN content. However, P. sansibaricus showed ~6%more TKN in vermicomposted material than thematerial processed by P. excavatus (t-test; P = 0.002).The available P was also higher in the end product(vermicompost) as compared to the initial feedmixture. The vermicompost, prepared by P. excavatusand P. sansibaricus, respectively showed 103.0 and110.3% more P content than the initial material (Table1). Comparatively, P. sansibaricus showed ~ 6% moreconcentration of the available P than P. excavatus inthe end product (vermicompost), but the differencewas not found statistically significant (t-test; P =0.269) (Table 1). Exchangeable K was also higher inthe vermicomposted material by the end of theexperiment. The highest increase in the potassiumcontent was in the vermibeds processed by P.excavatus (89% higher than initial concentration),which is slightly higher (t-test: P = 0.004) than thoseby P. sansibaricus (86.1% more than initial). The C:Nratio indicates the compost maturity as well asquality.In this study, the C:N ratio of the vermicompostedmaterial was lower than the initial feed mixture andthe highest reduction was in vermicompostprocessed by P. sansibaricus (67.7%). The differencein the C:N ratio significantly varied between thetreatments (P = 0.002). The growth and reproductionperformance of composting earthworms was alsoevaluated during the experimentation. As summarizedin Table 2, earthworm showed a considerable increasein individual live weight. The maximum individuallive weight differed significantly (t-test: P <0.01)between the studied species. P. excavatus and P.sansibaricus reached their maximum individual liveweights after 90 days (560.33 ± 16.44 mg) and 120days (526.0±11.27 mg), respectively. The maximumweight gain was followed by weight loss by the endof the experiment (Fig. 1). At the end of theexperiment, the mean individual weight of P.excavatus and P. sansibaricus was recorded:509.67±12.01 and 481.67±22.75, respectively (t-test;P <0.01)
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