INTRODUCTION

Citrus reticulata (Nagpur Orange) is one of the most promising fruit crops of Vidarbha. It is claimed to be one of the most remunerative and potential foreign exchange earning fruit crop of Vidarbha but recently

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

*Corresponding Author: pravin_makode@rediffmail.com Received 20th November, 2015

Accepted after revision 10th December, 2015 BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007 NAAS Journal Score : 3.48

©A Society of Science and Nature Publication, 2015. All rights reserved.

Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/

drying of orange trees, irregular "owering due to varied abiotic and biotic factors resulted in signi!cant decrease in productivity of orange. Oranges are predominantly grown on black soils, rich in minerals. It was observed that due to consistent depletion of organic matter and higher availability of potassium in soil induced high

217

PM Makode

acidity in the fruits, which take comparatively longer time for ripening that result in poor fruit yield and qual- ity. Increased realization of ill effects due to exclusive use of chemical fertilizers, unsustainable productivity of orange and growing demand from consumers for fruit quality have fostered experimentation with some alter- native cultural practices. Organic culture is claimed to be the most benign alternative. Use of organic materi- als such as farmyard manure, cakes of plant origin and Vermicomposts, are important components of the bio- organic concept of orange cultivation, (Chellachamy and Dinakaran 2015).

The Vermicomposts application is one of the effec- tive methods to rejuvenate the depleted soil fertility and enrich the available pool of nutrients and conserve more water, maintain soil quality and conserve more biologi- cal resources. As reported by some of the researchers ver- micomposting is an appropriate technology for residue and wate management (Jambhekar, 1992). Vermicom- posting is an easy and effective way to recycle agricul- tural waste, city garbage and kitchen waste along with bioconversion of organic waste materials into nutritious compost by earthworm activity (Hemalatha , 2012).

Vermicompost is potential organic manure rich in plant nutrients compared to farmyard manure or other organic manures in respect to supply of N, P, and K fer- tilizers The activities of dehydrogenase, nitrogenase, phosphatase, arylsultatase and urease were found higher in process of vermicomposting. It is fast growing in popularity as a tool of reclamation of waste and is used for reclamation of waste land, (Bhawalkar, 1993, Arun- kumar , 2000, Roy et. al. 2000 and Sinha et. al. 2005).

Fertilizers have almost replaced use of farmyard manures and resulted in severe depletion of soil quality by erosion and loss of organic content (Lavelle et., al. 1998). Vermicomposts have a much !ner structure than compost and contain nutrients informs that are read- ily taken up by the plants such as nitrates, exchange- able phosphorous and soluble potassium, calcium and magnesium (Edwards et.al.1998). Their growth produc- tivity and ability to transform organic waste as animal dung, agricultural residues, urban washes and sludge have been widely reviewed. The work were carried out in my own !eld at Sambhora Orange Garden to study the effect of vermicompost application on productivity and quality of orange in typical expansive clay soils in the !eld of 04 hectares with 1000 trees. The soil had pH 7.9, CaCO 82 g /kg, organic carbon 6.5 g/ kg and.

3

The culture bed of 15ft X 15ft for experimental sets was prepared by putting a layer of garden soil up at the base. Over this softened wastes mixed with cow dung in equal proportion was added on the surface of the soil. The entire culture trough was left for 15 day prior to experi- mentation for composting of the bedding materials.

These stock foods were stabilized by moistening with water to maintain 75 - 80% moisture content. The heat produced due to decomposition process was reduced by sprinkling water over the bed. In 10 –15 days, the pre- digested compost was ready for the preparation of ver- micompost. After 15 days 200 worms were introduced in bed. Surface of the composting setups were covered with polythene to prevent the entry of predators and to keep away "ies. This setup was left without disturbing the beds and worms until the vermicast were produced (Chellachamy and Dinakaran 2015). Water was sprinkled over the surface once a day and sometimes alternate days if the bed was wet and covered by net during the time of vermicomposting.

Vermicomposting has been recently universally accepted as eco friendly technology for sustainable development and abatement of pollution caused by municipal; garbage, sewage, sludge, agricultural wastes. The results at the present experiment revealed that the Vermicomposts prepared from cow dung and wastage fruits in the !eld processed by earthworm. Is used as a best organic fertilizer in terms of nutritional quality and the impact on the growth of the fruit and plant. The earthworm activity accelerated the process of waste products decomposition and stabilization and promoted biochemical characteristics of the Vermicastings that were favorable for plants growth. The reduced C: N ratio of the substrate material re"ects the organic waste mineralization and stabilization during the process of composting or vermicomposting. The loss of carbon as carbon dioxide through microbial respiration and simul- taneous addition of nitrogen by worms in the form of mucus and nitrogenous excretory material lowered the C: N ratio of the substrate, (Suthat, 2007).

The enhanced phosphorous level in vermicompost suggests phosphorous mineralization during vermicom- posting process. The passage of organic matter through the gut of earthworm’s results in phosphorus is con- verted to forms, which are more available to plants (Lee, 1992). Some previous studies also indicate enhanced potassium content in vermicompost by the end of the experiment, (Manna et.al. 2003 and Suthat 2007). The higher potassium concentration in the end product pre- pared from sewage sludge (Delgado et. al. 1995). The calcium level was more in experimental than control. This is due to microbes in gut of earthworms and their metabolic process. Calcium, Potassium are higher in Ver- micompost, (Atiyeh et.al.2002).

It was found that pots containing soil amended with vermicompost at the time of plant growth achieving signi!cantly better height and large number of leaves than control Punica grantum balasta showed the richest contents of organic carbon, Nitrogen Phosphorus, Potas- sium and Calcium.There were two treatments namely in

year namely in June and January before "owering i.e. application of 10 kg per average above12 years age of orange tree. Vermicompost had relatively higher con- centration of different nutrients which might have met the nutrient requirement of crop reasonably better and suitably modi!ed the physical and biological properties of soil (Srivastava et. al.2004).

Table showing nutrient content of vermicompost and its effects on growth and yield of Citrus reticulata

Application of 10 kg vermicompost per plant in the month of June (during basin preparation), recorded signi!cantly higher number of fruits, fruit weight and yield. The per cent increase in fruit number per tree, fruit weight and yield due to vermicompost application Ver- micompost application improves the porosity and inter- nal drainage of soils, nutrient content of soil and con- servation of water led to low fruit drop and higher fruit number and fruit weight and yield of orange. Applica-

PM Makode

tion of vermi compost signi!cantly improved the weight, quantity and quality of the oranges, as compared to non vermin compost applied plants. Nagpur oranges favor more requirement of organic matter to maintain and regulate the supply of nutrients to plants. Application of 10 kg vermi composts in the month of June (dur- ing basin preparation) signi!cantly increased the fruit number, fruit weight and fruit yield of orange, as found in the present study with reference to the juice contents.

REFERENCES

Arunkumar J, (2000). Effect of vermicomposted sludge on growth of Amaranths dubius. Ecotoxicol Environ Monit, 14(2): 157-160.

Atiyeh R M, Lee S, Edwards C A, Arancon N Q and Metzger J D, (2002). The in"uence of humic acids derived from earthworm- processed organic wastes on plant growth. Bioresource Tech- nology, 84(1): 7–14.

Bhawalkar, V U, (1993). The living soil. In: Extended Abstracts of congress on Traditional Science & Technologies of India, 28th November-3rd December – Bombay. pp.:10.5-10.8.

Chellachamy V.,Dinakaran S (2015) A comparative study on ver- micomposting of epicarp of fruits (pomegranate and Sathukudi) using earthworm Eisenia foetida, International Journal of Recent Scienti!c Research, Vol. 6, Issue, 3, pp.3125-3129.

Delgado M, Bigeriego M, Walter I and Calbo R, (1995). Use of California red worm in sewage sludge transformation. Tur- rialba, 45: 33- 41.

Edwards C A, Dominquez J and Neuhauser E F, (1998). Growth and reproduction of Perionyx excavates (Perr.) as factors in organic waste management. Biol Fert Soils, 27:155- 161.

Hemalatha B. (2012) Vermicomposting of fruit waste and industrial sludge, International Journal of Advanced Engineer- ing Technology, Vol.3 Issue 2, pp.60-63.

Jambhekar H A, (1992). Use of earthworm as a potential source to decompose organic wastes, in Proc. Nat. Seminar on Organic Farming, MPKV, Pune, 52-53.

Lavelle P B, Pashanasi F, Charpentier C, Gilot J P, Ross L, Derouard J, Andre J F, Ponge and N, Bernier, (1998). Large- scale effects of earthworms on soil organic matter and nutri- ent dynamics. Inclive A Edwards(ed).Earthworm Ecology. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, USA. PP. 103-122

Lee, K. E., (1992). Some trends opportunities in earthworm research or : Darwin’s children. The future of our discipline. Soil Biol. Biochem., 24: 1765 – 1771.

Manna, M.C., Jha, S., Ghosh, P.K. and Acharya, C.L., (2003). Comparative ef!ciency of three epigeic earthworms under different deciduous forest litters decomposition. Bioresource Tech., 88(3): 197 – 206.

Roy S K, S P Trehan and R C Sharma, (2000). Longterm nutrient management in potato-sun"ower- rice system for sustainable productivity. In: Intl. Conference on Managing Natural Resources, New Delhi. Extended Summaries.3: 920- 921.

Sinha R K, S. Heart, S. Agarwal, R.Asadi and E.Carretero. (2005) Vermiculture and waste management : study of action of earthworms Eisinia fetida, Eudrilus enginae and Perionyx excavatus on biodegradation of some community wastes in India and Australia The Environmentalist: 22(3): pp. 261 – 268.

Srivastava, A.K. and Shyam Singh. (2004). Nutrient Diagnos- tics and management in citrus. Tech. Bulletin-8, published bu NRC for Citrus, Nagpur. Pp-130.

Suthat S, (2007). Vermicomposting potential of Perionyx san- sibaricus (Perrier) in different waste materials. Bioresource Tech., 98: 1231 – 1237.

Umbreit W E, Burris R N and Stguffer J F, (1974). Method for nitrogen estimation. In: manometric and biochemical tech- niques Minnesota: Burgess publishing company pp:358.