[Digestion] Vermicomposts greatest gift""

[Hoysall Chanakya]

Just adding to Tim's "stealthy" input

Two of my colleagues pursued this line of thought and we found something
interesting.  Just as Tim put it nutrients cannot be gained because of
worms, in fact you could lose some N through volatilization.  The biggest
gift we found was that worms add their intestinal microflora to the
output.  It increases the number of a certain bacteria (not yet
identified) that become antagonistic to typical soil pathogens - in our
case we tried Rhizoctinia, Fusarium, Rolstonia and Xanthomonas.  The live
extract - indicating bacteria and other micro-organisms present seem to
reduce the growth of these two pathogens Rhizoctinia and Fusarium.  We are
collecting more information soon.

b.t.w has anyone quantified how much total N (as g/kg of compost) is lost
when biogas compost is converted to vermicompost?  Any indication to this
will be welcome.
Chanakya

-- 
Dr. Hoysall Chanakya
Centre for Sustainable Technologies
(Assoc. Faculty at Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and
Urban Planning (CiSTUP) and Centre for Contemporary Studies)
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012
ph 91-80-2293 3046; fax-91 80 2360 0683


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