Yield and Quality of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. Capitata) Under Organic Growing Media Using Vermicompost and Earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus Inoculation

A pot experiment was conducted to assess the effect of three kinds of vermicompost materials and P.corethrurus population on plant yield and quality of cabbage under organic growing media compared with inorganic treatment. The factorial blockrandomized design was used for this experiment which consisting of two factors. The first factor is the kind of vermicompost material which consists of three levels (the mixture of mushrooms media waste, cow manure, and vegetable wastes (V1), mushrooms media waste, cow manure and leaf litter (V2), mushrooms media waste, cow manure, vegetable wastes and leaf litter (V3). The second factor is the population of P. corethrurus consisted of five levels (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 indiv.m-2) and one control treatment (inorganic treatment). The results showed that the application of various vermicompost had significantly (p< 0.05) higher yields than the inorganic treatment. Interaction between the kind of vermicompost and P.coretrurus population affected sigbificantly(p< 0.05) yield and quality of cabbage. Vermicompost V1 and V2gave a high yield with population by 0-25 and 50 indiv.m-2, respectively. Vermicompost V3 gave a highyield without inoculation of earthworm P.corethrurus. Based on the quality parameters, the vermicompost V1 and V2 with population by 0-50 indiv.m-2and V3 with population by 25 indiv.m-2 gave the best quality of cabbage. Cabbage treated with those three kinds of vermicompost increased contents of sugar and vitamin C by average 12% and 57%, respectively. Storage loss (% of initial mass) showed decrease average value by 23%underthe treatment of 7days storage at room temperature (25oC) and 8% underthe treatment of 14 days storage at cold temperature (5oC) compared with the inorganic treatment by 85% and 18%, respectively. The results suggest that the application of vermicompostcan increase the yield and quality of cabbage.