Seyed Hadi Hosseini Jafari - Department of Agronomy and Crop Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, I. R. Iran
Mohammad Zarea - Department of Agronomy and Crop Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, I. R. Iran

In this study, various agricultural and industrial organic wastes were mixed with cow manure (CM) as the main raw material to compare their properties for the production of vermicompost and as feed material for earthworms. Cow manure, alone and in mixed with sugarcane bagasse (BG), date palm wastes (DW) and grape waste (GW) at the ratios of ۳:۱, ۱:۱, and ۱:۳ were used for culturing of the earthworm, Eisenia foetida. Total number, final biomass and the final length of earthworms and resulting vermicomposts were analyzed for their properties and chemical compositions after ۷۰ days. Results showed that the growth of the earthworms in terms of the total number, final biomass and final length in CM mixed with GW at the ratio of ۳:۱ were significantly greater than those in other mixture treatments probably due to the neutral pH condition (pH = ۷.۱). The mixture of cow manure and bagasse resulted in the highest rate of vermicompost production that was ۲۴.۶ Kg m-۳. The mixture of CM and GW provided the best conditions for E. foetida growing. CM mixed with GW produced the best results in terms of the chemical composition of the resulting vermicompost. Results of this study showed that vermicomposting was an adequate process for the degradation of sugarcane bagasse, grape waste and date fruit waste. The aforementioned organic wastes could be mixed with cow dung to produce quality vermicompost.

Agricultural organic waste, Earthworm (Eisenia foetida), Vermicompost