USING IRRADIATION TECHNIQUE OF GAMMA RAYS TO IMPROVE COMPOST QUALITY

Abstract

Composts produced from leucaena leaves (LL) poultry manure (PM), sugarcane bagasse (SB) were studied. LL were used also irradiated (ILL) with gamma rays at doses of 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 kGy (ILL). LL, ILL (2.5 kGy), ILL (5 kGy), ILL(10 kGy), PM + SB+ ULL, PM+ SB+ ILL(2.5 kGy), PM+SB+ ILL (5 kGy) and PM+SB+ ILL (10 KGy) were prepared representing C1,C2,C3,C4, C5,C6,C7 and C8 treatments respectively. During composting period (60 days) samples of each pile were taken at 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 days of composting and analyzed for their content of organic C (OC), N, P and K. OC decreased with the increase in composting period and with irradiation. PM and SB applications combined with either unirradiated or irradiated LL increased N, P and K with the increase composting period and irradiation doses of gamma rays.