Effect of Different Plant-based Substrates in Vermiculture

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of different plant-based substrates in Vermiculture. This study was designed to (1) determine the African night crawler produced; (2) determine the vermicast produced; and (3) vermicompost harvested using rice straw, mahogany leaf materials and banana bract as plant-based substrates. Three treatments were used in the study: T1, Rice straw; T2 Mahogany Leaf Materials; and T3, Banana bract. Each treatment used was replicated thrice. Based on the p<0.05 level of significance using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), there was a significant difference across treatments in African night crawler (E. eugeniae) and vermicast produced and vermicompost harvested. T1 gained the highest mean value with 753.33 (±35.12) followed by T2 with 381.67 (±54.85) and T3 with 235.00 (±60.32) in terms of African night crawler (E. eugeniae) produced using different plant-based substrates. In vermicast produced and vermicompost harvested T2gained the highest mean value with 6.33 (±1.15), 4.23 (±1.15) followed by T1 with 4.50 (±2.78), 2.33 (±0.58) and T3 with 1.42 (±1.01), 0.47 (±0.06), respectively. The study concluded that the use of different plant-based and animal-based substrates is an effective organic waste in vermicomposting. Using the above-mentioned substrates is indeed becoming a feasible way of converting waste to a valuable product, while also growing more worms to increase the capacity of the worm farms.