Rapid, Clean, and Sustainable Bioprocessing of Toxic Weeds into Benign Organic Fertilizer

A recent report in this journal from these authors, which shows that vermicomposting transforms a toxic weed such as lantana into benign organic fertilizer, can be of practical utility only if processes developed for rapid, inexpensive, and sustainable weeds. This paper describes attempts leading to process the allelopathic weeds (Lantana camara), parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus), ipomoea (Ipomoea carnea). For it, ‘high-rate vermicomposting’ concept was employed due could used directly each case without need pre-composting or any other form pretreatment. The manure worm Eisenia fetida, had been cultured on cowdung feed habitat, slow adapt weed-feed but survived then began thrive, all three weeds, enabling weeds’ sustained efficient throughout 16 month’s uninterrupted operation vermireactors. In cases extent vermicast production per unit time showed rising trend, indicating rate set rise further with time. found accompany 50 ± 10% loss carbon increase concentration total nitrogen also weed’s additional mineralization. combined effect significant lowering carbon-nitrogen ratio, enrichment major, medium, trace nutrients vermicomposts relative their parent substrates. findings establish sustained, direct, rapid transformation fertilizers even accomplished high-rate paradigm.