Vermicomposting of food waste: assessing the stability and maturity

The vermicompost using earthworms (eisenia fetida) was produced from food waste and chemical parameters (ec,ph, carbon to nitrogen contents (c/n)) and germination bioassay was examined in order to assess the stability andmaturity indicators during the vermicomposting process. the seed used in the germination bioassay was cress. theranges of ec, ph, c/n and germination index were 7.5-4.9 ms/cm, 5.6-7.53, 30.13-14.32% and 12.8-58.4%,respectively. the germination index (gi) value revealed that vermicompost rendered as moderate phytotoxic tocress seed. pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the relationship between the parameters. highstatistically significant correlation coefficient was calculated between the gi value and ec in the vermicompost atthe 99% confidence level. the c/n value showed that the vermicompost was stable. as a result of theseobservations, stability test alone, was not able to ensure high vermicompost quality. therefore, it appears thatdetermining vermicompost quality requires a simultaneous use of maturity and stability tests.