Evaluation of vegetable wastes recycled for vermicomposting and its response on yield and quality of carrot (Daucus carota L.)

Background Vegetable crops generate a large amount ofcrop residues after harvesting of economic part. Thesepotentially nutritious residues are soft, succulent and easilydecomposable and instead of disposing or damping, it canbe used as source of organic residues for utilizing theembedded nutrients through compost production. In thepresent study, diverse vegetable wastes were recycled forvermicomposting and their effects were evaluated in fieldexperiments in organic carrot production.Results The result showed that among different vegetablewastes, substrate combining mixture of non-legume andlegume wastes at 2:1 emerged best considering the nutrientcontents, C/N ratio, earthworm biomass and vermicompostrecovery. Use of such vermicompost recorded highest rootlength (19.26 cm), root volume (73 cm3), root weight(68.43 g) and root yield (16.07 Mg ha-1) of carrot. Thequality of the root as judged by beta carotene and totalsoluble solids content was also found highest by the samevermicompost.Conclusions The findings established the potentiality ofearthworm for quality vermicompost production fromvegetable wastes, and through intended selection andjudicious mixture of different vegetable wastes the castquality can be improved. The study demonstrated thatvermicompost produced from the substrate, combiningmixture of non-legume and legume vegetable waste at 2:1will provide the major nutrients in more balanced proportioncompared to sole individual family waste vermicompost(vermicompost obtained from the waste of one singleplant family). The findings can be promoted as a soundvegetable wastes recycling technology for organic carrotproduction to conserve natural resources and to minimizethe deleterious impact of vegetable wastes on mother earth.