The main component of vermicompost is cow dung and earthworm, and it is mainly used as to supply of organic matter and different essential elements to the soil. On the other hand, organic manures can also supply these elements to the soil. So, can we use anyone of this as the replacement of another?
I suggest you go through the open-access article with doi: 10.4236/as.2010.12011
It should answer all your questions and queries.
Manure from omnivores like cow, horse, sheep, goats, or even alpacas, is a potential tool you can use for improving your soil. It adds organic material to your soil and helps with moisture retention and drainage. Fresh manure has too high of a nitrogen content in it, and can do more harm than good if you add it directly into your soil. Generally, it takes about six months to compost manure effectively before you can mix it in with your soil. Additionally, using manure as a soil amendment tool raises your risk of weeds, as weed seeds can still be present within the manure.
When choosing which manure to add to your soil, keep in mind that there will be a different range of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium present in each type of manure.For most of us, using worm castings as organic fertilizer for your soil is an easier and more cost effective option than manure.
Creating your own vermicompost takes a shorter amount of time than composting manure—you can have compost ready in as little as 3 months. Generally, it takes between 3 – 6 months to have vermicompost ready for your garden.It’s also relatively inexpensive to create—you just need a few starter materials, some worms, and then you’re ready to begin.The vermicompost also contain,Magnesium,Calcium,Potassium,Phosphorus,Nitrogen.
Among the physical properties of vermicompost, water absorption is of high importance. Therefore, the more moisture, ventilation, and presence of nutrients, the better yields the plant can have. Yield of the plants fed with vermicompost dosages of 500 g/m2 increased, which may be the result of higher absorption of the nutrients and better feeding of the plant. It seems that earthworms have a role in enhancement of the solubility of the mineral iron or its maintenance in absorbable form in the fertilizer and contribute to the production of vermicompost (3, 5). Vermicompost can reduce health and environmental problems. Vermicompost has detoxifying ability, thus its cultivation products are safe. Also, vermicompost is safe for farmers (4). In this regard, yield of the plants treated with cow manure dosage of 500 g/m2 decreased, which is probably due to its high pH relative to the vermicompost fertilizer. The reason is that the absorption of ferrous and zinc metals by the plant decreases when the pH increases to 0.3.
I agree with Dr. Bijay Singh Sir.The article is really informative to supply answer to your query.
Vermicompost has proven edge over any other organic manure , there is no doubt about it , but our limitation is to bring feedstock material to produce that much vermicompost , unless on-farm model of recycling farm residue is developed. Let us try to bring manure/compost holiday for crop similar to nutrient holiday....
yes definitely. You can go through the following link for a comparative study on Directed seeded rice
- DOI: 10.1007/s40003-016-0218-6
Further it was also observed from an experiment on upland rice that that INM practices with 75% RDN (Recommended dose of nitrogen) through VC + 25% RDF (recommended dose of fertilizer) or 75% RDN through well decomposed FYM (in which viability of weed seeds lost during decomposition) + 25% RDF for reducing weed infestation and increasing productivity of rainfed upland rice.
Nosotros en Perú conocemos al vermicompost como humus de lombriz y lo consideramos como una materia orgánica elaborada de muy alta calidad física como acondicionador de suelos, en especial suelos arenosos o pedregosos. Para lograr retención de humedad y mejor desarrollo de raíces, y tiene una ventaja sobre el estiércol de vacuno, en que tiene un bajo contenido de sales y podemos aplicarlos para la siembra de semillas, o el trasplante directo de diversos cultivos
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