South Indian Journal of Biological Sciences

Ganesan Sakthivigneswari ¹, Vijayalakshmi Annamalai ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Botany, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore – 641043, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

An investigation was carried to convert corncob agro‐waste, an environmental pollutant into organic manure by inoculating a white rot basidiomycetes fungi Pleurotus sajor‐caju and earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae. The experimental treatments were Pleurotus sajor‐caju and earthworm inoculated corncob samples of C₁‐ corn cob + Pleurotus sajor‐caju C₂‐ predigested corn cob + Eudrilus Eugeniae C₃‐ predigested corn cob + Eudrilus eugeniae + Pleurotus sajor‐caju, C₃ found to be an efficient degrader of corncob and it showed a drastic reduction in the chemical parameter like organic carbon (39.50%) cellulose and lignin content (27.50% and 35.70%). C: N ratio was narrowed down from 112:1 to 32:1 while total nitrogen content was increased to 0.92 to 0.35% over (raw sample) control. Compost (C₃) has higher content of micro nutrients like calcium (3.11%) magnesium (2.74 %) when compared to the control (0.80, 0.20). Hence based on the studies performed it was concluded that vermicompost obtained from the degradation of corncob agro‐waste by Eudrilus eugeniae and Pleurotus sajor‐caju is an effective biofertilizer which facilitate the uptake of the nutrients by the plants resulting in higher growth and yield.

Keywords

C‐ Compost, Pleurotus sajor‐caju, Eudrilus eugeniae.

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