Desenvolvimento de minhocas da espécie Eudrilus eugeniae e qualidade do húmus produzido a partir do fornecimento de diferentes dietas

Abstract

The gigante africana earthworm (Eudrilus eugeniae) is a species widely used in the biostabilization of organic waste and has a high capacity for adaptation to the tropical climate. The objective of this work was to evaluate the development of earthworms of the Eudrilus eugeniae species and the quality of the vermicompost produced with the supply of different diets. The work was carried out in an agroecological production area of the company Alimentum LTDA and also in the Laboratories of Mineral Nutrition of Plants, Bromatology and Soil Chemistry, at UEMA. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, in a 5x6 factorial scheme, what represented the five treatments (T1- Cattle manure, T2- Cattle manure + Sombreiro residue, T3- Cattle manure + Grass clippings, T4- Cattle manure + Organic compost, T5- Cattle manure + Water hyacinth residue) and six evaluation times (14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 84 days). The material used in the earthworms' diet was purchased from the company itself, they were inserted into each plot in a 1:1 ratio, which totaled 10 kg of waste for every 5 adult earthworms. During vermicomposting, evaluations regarding the development of earthworms were carried out. At the end, the humus was evaluated for: pH, carbon and macronutrients. Humus was used in sowing lettuce. At 7 days after sowing (DAS), seedling vigor (SV), clod stability (CS), shoot fresh mass (SFM), root fresh mass (RFM), shoot dry mass (SDM), mass root dryness (MRD), number of true leaves (NT) and plant height. The different diets influenced the development of the earthworms and the quality of the humus. At 56 and 70 days of conducting the experiment, the number of earthworms born was higher in all diets (ranging from 43 to 44 worms/pups/plot). All treatments showed high levels of pH and nitrogen. T1 provided seedlings with higher MFPA (0.508 g/plant) and better ET (3.17), however it is not possible to consider that the different substrate composition influenced the development of lettuce seedlings in an evaluation period of 7 DAS. In this way, it is possible to partially replace bovine manure as a diet in the creation of earthworms, without affecting the quality of the humus produced.