Microbial inoculants for Jatropha press cake compost production
2010
Espiritu, B.M. | Pedro, M.S. | Willaverand, L.B. | Cayabyab, C.N., Philippines Univ. Los Banos, College, Laguna (Philippines). Coll. of Agriculture
Composting heaps were prepared for the purpose of determining the effects of microbial inoculation on Jatropha press-cake compost production. The different treatments were: T1, control; T2, enriched Jatropha press cake extract; T3, +2% (NH4)2SO4; T4, + Trichoderma and Azotobacter, and T5, + mixture of 12 microorganisms from Jatropha press cake. Heap dimension was 2.0 m x 1.20 m x 0.5 m and contained 250 kg. Jatropha press cake. The physical and chemical properties and microbial load of press cake in the course of composting were determined. The pH of all treatments increased from 5.0 to 8.5 that could have caused the decrease in nitrogen content of the compost. The initial total nitrogen content of press cake ranged from 3.06% to 3.51%. After 56 days of composting, a decrease in total N was observed which ranged from 2.24% to 2.91%. The highest decrease in total N was observed in the control heap (2.24%, total N) that was a decrease of 32.33% compared to that with ammonium sulfate. On the other hand, an increase in phosphorus content was observed. The highest increase in total phosphorus was recorded in heap enriched with Jatropha press cake extract, 0.75% (increase over control of 20.97%) followed by the heap inoculated with mixed microbial strains 0.73% (increase over control of 19.67%). Total carbon content generally decreased in all treatments. The results showed the different qualities of compost that can be prepared from Jatropha press cake using some defined protocols with or without microbial inoculation.
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