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- Title
Evaluation of Composts from Agricultural Wastes with Fish Pond Sediment as Bulking Agent to Improve Compost Quality.
- Authors
Karak, Tanmoy; Bhattacharyya, Pradip; Paul, Ranjit Kumar; Das, Tapati; Saha, Subhrajit K.
- Abstract
Composts with five different ratios of agricultural wastes, viz. rice straw (RS), wheat straw (WS), potato plant (PP), and mustard stover (MS) were prepared with or without fish pond bottom sediment to investigate the compost maturity and their suitability for field application. The composting process was monitored through the changes in physico-chemical parameters and germination index (GI) at every 7 days interval of the composting process. All the composts were dark brown and smelled like forest soil within 56 days of composting, which reflected its matured status. On the basis of the physico-chemical parameters (bulk density: 0.84 g/cm3; pH 7.05; electrical conductivity: 3.52 mS/cm; cation exchange capacity:82.4 cmol/kg; total carbon:321.4 g/kg; total nitrogen: 16.9 g/kg; As: 6.8 mg/kg; Cd: 2.96 mg/kg; Cr: 29.6 mg/kg, Cu: 243.6 mg/kg; Hg: 0.019 mg/kg; Ni: 24.3 mg/kg; Pb: 62.1 mg/kg and Zn: 812 mg/kg) and GI (89-96%), it could be concluded that RS/WS/PP/MS, 1:1:2:1 v/v/v/v with fish pond sediment produced better compost in accordance with the Indian compost standard. Application of a combined randomized block design analysis revealed that there is a significant difference in the responses of the five composts, in relation to the time of composting. Hierarchical clustering algorithm was applied with a view to form homogeneous groups of five different composts on the basis of different physico-chemical parameters. Therefore, the ratio of waste incorporation is an important decision for composting and addition of pond sediment can improve the quality of compost.
- Subjects
COMPOSTING; AGRICULTURAL wastes; FISH pond ecology; SEDIMENTS; RICE straw; MUSTARD
- Publication
CLEAN: Soil, Air, Water, 2013, Vol 41, Issue 7, p711
- ISSN
1863-0650
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/clen.201200142