Vermiwash As a component of INM

Rahul Kumar and ShwetaVermiculture Research Station,

Department of ZoologyD.S. College (Dr. B.R.A. University) ,

Aligarh – 202001, Uttar Pradesh, India kmshweta3@yahoo.com

OBJECTIVES

After going through this lesson, you will be able to produce

Vermiwash.

Introduction• Vermiwash, a liquid bio-fertilizer can be collected

through the column of activated earthworm.

•It contains plant growth hormones like auxins and cytokinin apart from nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and other micronutrients.

Agriculturally Important Microbes in Vermiwash

Vermiwash contains: Nitrogen fixing bacteriaAzotobacter spRhizobium sp.

Phosphate solublizing bacteria.

Benefits of Vermiwash

• Vermiwash acts as a plant tonic and helps to reduce many plant diseases.

• A mixture of vermiwash (1litre) with cow urine (1litre) in 10 liters of water acts as biopesticide and liquid manure.

Principle of Vermiwash production

The trickling of water takes away all the body secretions of the earthworm along with it and also other nutrients from the decomposed materials.

The collected water contains many nutrients readily available to the crop plants.

Composition of Vermiwash

The composition of vermiwash is as follow:

pH 7.48 ± 0.03

Organic carbon% 0.008 ± 0.001

Nitrogen% 0.01 ± 0.005

Available phosphorous% 1.69 ± 0.05

Potassium (ppm) 25 ± 2

Micro-nutrients in Vermiwash

Sl. No. Nutrient Quantity (ppm)

1. Sodium 8 ± 1

2. Calcium 3 ± 1

3. Copper 0.01 ± 0.001

4. Ferrous 0.06 ± 0.001

5. Magnesium 158.44 ± 23.42

6. Manganese 0.58 ± 0.040

7. Zinc 0.02 ± 0.001

Microbial composition of vermi-wash

Sl. No. Microbes Microbial count (CFU/ml)

1. Total heterotrophs 1.79x103

2. Nitrosomonas sp. 1.01 x103

3. Nitrobacter sp. 1.12 x 103

4. Total fungi 1.46 x 103

Requirementsfor the production of Vermiwash

•Bucket with tap

•Earthworms

•Cow dung

Method of preparation of vermiwash

• Select one sufficiently large container made of concrete or plastic bucket .

• Drill a hole at the base of the container to fix a tap to it.

Method of preparation of Vermiwash

• A base layer of gravel or broken small pieces of bricks are placed upto height of 10-15 cm.

• On the coarse sand layer place 40-45 cm pre-decomposed organic wastes and moisten the different layers by using water.

• Introduce about 2000 earthworms into the container.

Integrated Vermiwash Unit• Vermiwash unit should be established with

vermicomposting beds for large scale production.

Precautions

• Water should be poured slowly. • Do not mix un-decomposed material

while, watering.

• Do not add any green material.

• Do not allow to compact the contents.

LET US SUM UP• Vermiwash, a liquid fertilizer collected after the passage of

water through a column of worm activation is very useful as a foliar spray.

• It contains plant growth hormones like auxins and cytokinin apart from nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and other micro nutrients.

• It contains nitrogen fixing bacteria like Azatobacter sp., Arobactericum sp. and Rhizobium sp. and some phosphate solublizing bacteria.

• It acts as a plant tonic and helps to reduce many plant diseases.