Residual Effect of Various Types of Vermicomposts on Growth and Yield of Green Gram (Vigna radiata L.) in Rice-pulses Cropping System

Abstract

The residual effect of vermicomposts applied on preceding rice crop to the succeeding greengram under the rice- pulses cropping system was studied. The experiment was conducted at the wetland farms, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore by following the randomized complete block design (RBD) with 11 treatments and replicated thrice. After harvest of rice, greengram was raised as residual crop. The treatments followed were vermicomposts prepared from Eudrilus eugeniae + paddy straw (T1), Eudrilus eugeniae + coconut wastes (T2), Eudrilus eugeniae + Vegetable wastes(T3), Eudrilus eugeniae + farm wastes(T4), Eudrilus eugeniae + farm yard manure (FYM) (T5), Eisenia foetida + pady straw(T6), Eisenia foetida + coconut wastes(T7), Eisenia foetida + vegetable wastes(T8), Eisenia foetida + farm wastes(T9), Eisenia foetida + farm yard manure (FYM) (T10) and absolute control (T11). The result indicated that there was a residual effect of vermicompost in the greengram crop after rice. The residual effect in the treatment T2 (Eudrilus eugeniae + coconut wastes) found superior on growth parameters of greengram viz., plant height, drymatter production (DMP) and number of pods plant-1 and on seed and haulm yields than all other treatments. The treatment T2 (Eudrilus eugeniae + coconut wastes) was comparable to the treatment T7 (Eisenia foetida + coconut wastes). The lower growth and yield were found in the treatment Absolute control (T11). Among the treatments, the coconut wastes with the earthworm species Eudrilus eugeniae and Eisenia foetida performed well with better growth and yield of the greengram crop than the other wastes.