Jullenette D. Arteta, Edward Paul F. Fortuna, John Kevin G. Yu (March 2009)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
Organic fertilizers are alternative to chemical fertilizers as source of nutrients for the soil. One way of producing organic fertilizers is by vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is a form of composting that uses worms to convert organic wastes to vermicompost. Distillery sludge, the waste from the sugarcane-juice-based sugar making process, is known for its high percentage of nitrogen and organic matter. Thus, this study aims to investigate if there is a difference in the nutrients found in the vermicast of Eudrillus euginae will be fed with substrate with and without distillery sludge, a substrate high in nutrients.
Organic materials were collected and were allowed to decompose, and then distillery sludge was also gathered. Then concentrations of sludge in each vermicompost bed were varied into 0%, 15%, and 30% with three replicates of each concentration. Then the following nutrients in each replicate were determined: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, and Organic matter. The changes in the amount of nutrients were compared to each concentration of sludge.
The mean percentage of nitrogen and phosphorous both increased as the concentrations of distillery sludge was increased, while the mean percentage of Potassium showed otherwise, an increase in the concentration of sludge decreased the mean percentage of Potassium. However, the mean percentage of Organic matter showed no significant pattern when the concentration of sludge was varied.
Within the confines of NPK and organic matter content, it can be concluded that to increase the Nitrogen and Phosphorous content of the vermicast of African Nightcrawlers, the substrate should have a concentration of distillery sludge. This information might be useful to botanists who study on how to improve the quality of organic fertilizers in terms of its nutrient contents.