INFLUENCE OF VERMICOMPOST AND PLANT DENSITY ON SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF PEAS

The need to increase the organic soil matter for sustainable production to match food security under semi-arid Egyptian conditions (high temperature, low preception, shortage of organic fertilizer etc..) led to looking for new sources of oragnic materials such as  modern composting technologies and increase the effeiency of recycling. The field experiment was carried out during the two winter successive seasons of 2011 and 2012 under open field conditions in protected cultivation site, Central Laboratory for Agriculture Climate (CLAC), Agriculture Research Centre, Giza, Egypt. Peas (Pisum sativum), cv. Lincolin was used in this study. The study aimed to investigate the use of vermicompost as alternative organic fertilizer by different rates (15, 20 and 25 m3/feddan) compared to cattle manure (20 m3/feddan as a control) combained with two plant distances (30 and 50 cm) which  performed in split plot design. The obtained results indicate that increasing the rate of vermicompost from 15 to 25 m3/feddan led to increase the values of physical and chemical properties of both pea plants and yield characteristics. The highest vegetative growth characteristics were recorded by application rate of 25 m3/feddan combined with 50 cm plant distance followed by 20 m3/feddan combined with 30 cm compared to the other treatments. The application rate of vermicompost 25 m3/feddan combined with plant distance 30 cm gave the highest yield of peas per feddan. Concerning, the highest fruit quality parameters were estimated under application rate of vermicompost 20 m3/feddan combined with 50 cm. The recommended treatment under this study conditions was the use of vermicompost 25 m3/feddan combined with 30 cm followed by 20 m3/feddan combined with 30 cm of plant distance. The vermicomposting of organic wastes and applied it to the soil as an organic fertilizer instead of burial or inceneration led to store CO2 in the soil and decrease its emission.