Preparation and Quality Assessment of Different Types of Compost

Abstract

An experiment was carried out in the Germplasm Centre of Agrotechnology Discipline of Khulna University, Khulna during the period from January to June, 2014. The experiment was conducted to assess the nutrient quality of different types of compost. Different composting materials such as water hyacinth, kitchen waste, cowdung, Farm Yard Manure (FYM) and poultry litter and the combination of those materials were used to prepare the compost. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications and fifteen treatments (T₁ = 100% water hyacinth, T₂ = 100% kitchen waste, T₃ = 100% cowdung, T₄ = 100% Farm Yard Manure (FYM), T₅ = 100% poultry litter, T₆ = 50% water hyacinth and 50% kitchen waste, T₇ = 50% water hyacinth and 50% cowdung, T₈ = 50% water hyacinth and 50% Farm Yard Manure (FYM), T₉ = 50% water hyacinth and 50% poultry litter, T₁₀ = 50% kitchen waste and 50% cowdung, T₁₁ = 50% kitchen waste and 50% Farm Yard Manure (FYM), T₁₂ = 50% kitchen waste and 50% poultry litter, T₁₃ = 50% cowdung and 50% Farm Yard Manure (FYM), T₁₄ = 50% cowdung and 50% poultry litter and T₁₅ = 50% Farm Yard Manure (FYM) and 50% poultry litter). The colors of different compost were dark brown to black and sometimes dark grey color occurs. The texture of final well-decomposed compost is crumby, in which larger particles change into finer ones. Mature compost (well decomposed) has slight earthy smell. Different elements viz. total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, zinc and boron were analyzed from these different compost materials. From the study, maximum total nitrogen (1541 ppm) and boron (542 ppm) were reported from the treatment T₁₃ (50% cowdung and 50% FYM), phosphorus (8976 ppm) from T₁₅, potassium (16640 ppm) from T₉, calcium (2858 ppm) from T₅, magnesium (1119 ppm) from T₁. The treatment T₁₄ (50% cowdung and 50% poultry litter) contains highest amount of sulphur (6524 ppm) and zinc (318.3 ppm).