PREPARATION OF ORGANIC FERTILIZER FROM SOLID WASTE AND ITS APPLICATION IN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION - Mubashrah Munir; Arshia Shabir; Ishrat Fatima; Sehrish Sadia; Ali Ahmad Sheikh; Mubeena Mansoor; Lubna Ansari (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2025)
The economics and food security of Asian nations are significantly influenced by agriculture. The gardens, hostels, residential societies and organizations discard a significant amount of solid waste. This research aimed to convert the solid waste into organic fertilizer, to evaluate physiochemical composition of compost and its influence on the growth (germination and proximate analysis) of Spinacia oleracea L., Trigonella foenum-graecum L., Brassica campestris L. The solid waste of gardens, hostels and residential colony of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences was composted by bin composting method. The compost pH 7.9, EC 1.43 mS/cm, moisture content 39%, total organic carbon (TOC) 5.17% and total nitrogen (TN) 1.51% were recorded. The seeds of three vegetables were sown in pots filled with different ratios of compost and soil; T1-100% soil, T2-25:75, T3-50:50, T4-75:25 and T5-100% compost using Complete Randomized Design (CRD) and three replicates per treatment. The growth of three leafy vegetables was significantly increased in all treatments as compared to control. In T4, maximum plant heights 23.99cm, 34.60cm and 68.38cm were recorded for T. foenum-graecum L., S. oleracea L. and B. campestris L. respectively. The highest number of leaves were 26.83 in T. foenum-graecum L. in T5 while in S. oleracea L. and B. campestris L. maximum leaf number (129.25 and 16.58) were recorded in T4. In T5, root length of 21.90cm and 21.56cm in T.foenum-graceum and S. oleracea was maximum. while maximum root length of 18.50cm was recorded in T4 in B. campestris. The highest plant biomass (48.88g for both T. foenum-graceumand S. oleracea and 31.44g in B. campestris) were in T4 and T5. The proximate analysis of vegetables showed that concentration of crude protein (14.65% in S. oleracea L., 18.81% in T. foenum -graceum L., 21.21% in B. campestris L.) was maximum in T4. Carbohydrate content in all vegetables decreased with increase in compost quantity. In the present study, the proximate composition of spinach, fenugreek and mustard leaves were first time presented under the influence of different compost and soil treatments that concluded solid waste organic fertilizers (especially at 75% compost + 25% soil) had positive impact on growth parameters as well as nutritional content of used three vegetable crops studied.
Keywords: journal article; Compost; Physico-chemical; Spinacia oleracea L; Trigonella foenum-graecum L; Brassica campestris L; Proximate