Physico-chemical and nutritional analysis of vermiwash produced from leaf litters of Pongamia pinnata using an Earthworm Eudrillus eugineae (Kinb.)

Vermiwash production has become an innovative discipline of vermitechnology that is aimed basically at the culture of earthworms for waste recycling and the use of its castings for sustainable agriculture. This experiment was carried out to assess the physic-chemical and nutrient status of the vermiwash obtained using the popular composting earthworm species, Eudrillus eugineae (Kinb.) from leaf litters of Pongamia pinnata. The results showed substantial increase in the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced with time in all the cases. However, the vermiwash produced from P. pinnata leaf litter showed more content of phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and other parameters compared with the vermiwash produced in without leaf litters considered as control. Such variations observed in the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced from leaf litters indicate that the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced could be largely influenced by the nature of the composting material thereby providing scope for further investigations in this field.