DIVERGENCE IN THE VERMICOMPOSTING OF GREEN AND SENESCENCE BLACK PLUM (SYZYGIUM CUMINI) LEAF LITTERS

In the present scenario, generation of organic solid waste is foremost trouble demands healthy and sustainable elucidation. Vermicomposting is an appropriate biotechnological approach to transform organic solid waste into valuable product. Vermicomposting process is carried out by suitable exotic verities of earthworm. These Earthworms utilize semi digested organic waste include carbohydrate and protein as a source of food and produces vermicast which is rich in nutrients. Because more than 40 % part of city waste composed of plant materials therefore it can be a better utilizes in vermicomposting process. In the present experiment, plant material viz. Green leaf litters (GLL) and senescence leaf litter (SLL) of Black plum (Syzygium cumini) was taken and converted into vermicompost through Eisenia foetida and Eudrilus eugenia. Result revealed that vermicomposting mixture of both GLL and SLL showed similar trend in pH and temperature variation. The result of moisture contained revealed that SLL required more water to maintain adequate moisture than GLL. Total nitrogen content and total organic carbon were found more in GLL than SLL.


Introduction
Bioorganic-waste generated either by activity of human being or naturally (Akolkar, 2005). In India, about 700 million tons of solid organic waste generated annually which containing about 60 % of biological materials including leaves, husk, sawdust, steam bark, flowers etc (Bhiday, 1994). Plant materials are rich in decomposable materials synthesized by photosynthetic apparatus found in green part of plant such as leaf. The nutrient lavishness nature of leaf depends upon photosynthesizing compound, absorbed minerals from the soil, accessibility of water and physical factors viz. temperature and sunlight (Smith et al. 2000, Tausz et al. 2004). The availability of nutrients, perk-up the quality and quantity of plant products. Plant leaves are also play significant role as energy source for the microbes as well as major fauna of soil and water (França et al. 2009; Sarkar et al., 2010). These living creature decompose leaf litter and mineralize it with assimilation of energy (Shouche et al.,2014;Boulton and Boon, 1991).
Decomposition of leaf litters depends upon their physical and chemical property (Rincón and Santelloco 2009;Bruder et al. 2014). Although decomposing process help in nutrient cycling and procurement of elements for soil but with loss of certain nutrients also (Gandhi et. al., 1997). Vermicomposting is a better alternate for recycling of nutrient from leaf litters (Abbasi et al. 2009). There are immense effort have been done by several scientist towards the mineralization of leaf litters of different plant species by using of earthworms (Vasanthi, et al., 2013;Alagesan and Dheeba, 2010;Nath andChaudhuri ,2014 Nagalakshmi andPrakash2016).
Most of the study of leaf litter's vermicomposting is based on using of mature fallen leaves. In nature, plant leaf falling is common phenomenon which occurs by the process of senescence goverened by several biochemical changes (Jyothsna and Murthy 2016; Clément et al. 2017). At the end of maturation of leaf, when senescence starts, the available nutrients translocate from mature leaf to the other part of plant. (Diaz et al. 2008;Hollmann et al. 2014) It has been found that up to 70% of the leaf nitrogen translocat from senescent organs to other parts of the plant resulting less availability of nitrogen in mature fallen leaves than green leaves (Peoples and Dalling, 1988 ;Kochi and Yanai 2006).
Efforts also made to prepare compost from green leaves also (Landeiro et al. 2008;Martins et al. 2015;Gonçalves et al. 2017), sometimes with the rationalization that green leaves of plant signify and vital energy source (Lopes et al. 2015), or due to the unfeasibility of collecting senescent leaves in some ecosystems. Thus, the use of green leaves nearly always imply greater nutritional availability that allows for greater attractiveness to organisms associated with their Pre-composting followed by vermicomposting and therefore it assumes that their rates of decomposition are greater than the senescent leaves (Bastian et al. 2007).
In the present research is aim to evaluate this difference in vermicomposting coefficients between green and senescent leave of Black plum with using of two exotic verities of earthworm species i.e. Eudrilus eugenia and Eisenia foetida.

Collection of Leaf Litter Waste
The leaf litter of Black plum (Common Name: Jamun; Syzygium cumini) used as a substrate was collected at random from Govt. Madhav Science PG college Campus, Ujjain. The green leaf was plucked from tree at the time of experiment. Senescence leaf which had fallen also collected from ground around Black plum tree. Collected leaves were washed with distilled water in order to remove dust and allow to air dry under shadow .

Vermicomposting of Black Plum (Syzygium Cumini) Leaf Litter
Black plum leaf litter waste was cut into smaller pieces of about 4-6 mm in size and about 1000 grams of this material was thoroughly mixed with 1000 grams of 10 days old cattle dung (1:1 ratio). After mixing, it was poured into plastic bins. After 10 days when temperature came down to ambient level then 10-10 clitellate worms of each species (E. eugeniae and Eisenia foetida) were transferred on vermicomposting bin. These bins were regularly watered during the period of study to maintain moisture of 60± 1 %. Three replications have been maintained till the granular appearance was not seen.

Collection of Vermicompost Samples for Analysis
Samples of vermicompost were collected from experimental bins after regular interval of time.
Collect samples was allowed to air dry and stored in freeze at 4 to 8ºC ±1ºC till the completion of experiment (Nagar et a.,2018).

Measurement of Physical Parameters
During vermicomposting of both green and senescence leaf litters, collected compost sample was analyzed by a variety of physical and chemical factors. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [40]   During vermicomposting moisture content of the leaf litter was also measured. It has found that at initial phase GLL mixture content more moisture level (68.8 %) then SLL mixture (49.2 %) while the moisture level of cattle dung was recorded 60.3%. In order to maintain adequate moisture level in mixture, water was added after regular interval of time. During the course of process GLL mixture retain more moisture level than SLL. The requirement of addition of water in mixture was more in initial phase due to loss of water in the form of vapour. This loss was occurred due to generation of metabolic heat (Pirti,1978). While in later condition metabolic heat reduces due to exhausting of organic matter Yoshida &Rowe,2003). It has also found that water loss more frequently occur in first two weeks than it gradually slow down. Our result was concordance with result of solid waste and food waste composting done by Suler-Finstein (1977) and Sundberg (2003). Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [43] During the study, depletion of biomass of both GLL and SLL vermicomposting mixtures were also measured which shown in fig. no  Total organic carbon (TOC) was also measured during process of vermicomposting. Obtained data revealed that GLL contained more TOC (46.12 %) than SLL (45.12%) as compared to 100 % cattle dung (28 %) at inauguration phase. Result also explore that during vermicomposting 65 % depletion took place in GLL waste while 63 % depletion took place in SLL as compaired to cattle dung (56 %) (Fig 5). It has to be supposed because cattle dung obtained after absorption of digested food in the alimentary canal of cattle. Therefore, it contains less concentration of total organic compound. In case of GLL Vermicomposting mixture, contains raw material in excessive quantity therefore it has more total carbon then 100% cattle dung. In case of SLL Vermicomposting waste, because complex organic substance such as cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin found which decompose gradually therefore TOC remain at the end of process. It has also found that organic compound mineralizes gradually throughout the stage of composting (APHA, 1992) The measured value of total Kjeldhal nitrogen during the Vermicomposting process is depicted in Fig. 6. There was increase in total N contents in GLL, SLL and 100 % cattle dung. The total N content in GLL and SLL vermicompost mixture was measured 1.  Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [45]

Conclusions and Recommendations
Vermicomposting is no doubt a technique for conversion of organic waste into nutrient rich product called vermicompost. The outcome of present study has elaborated how different organic waste utilized through composting technique to get finished valuable product. Every set up of vermicomposting require optimum provision for survival and growth of earthworm. In present study we got some information regarding the physical factors viz. pH, temperature, moisture content and biomass reduction rate which infer the changes during entire period of vermicomposting. With this study we can get better our information that what factors should be keeps in mind to do vermicomposting of leaf litter. Chemical study also suggested that how carbon and nitrogen content changed during process and at what concentration we get at the end of process.