Effect of microbial inoculation during vermicomposting of different organic substrates on microbial status and quantification and documentation of acid phosphatase

In this experiment, three microbial strains were inoculated in two different organic wastes to study their effect on the humic acids content, acid phosphatase activity and microbial properties of the final stabilized products. Pyrophosphate extract of vermicomposts were analyzed through polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to study the nature of a isozymes in different treatments. Results suggested that vermicomposting increased humic acids content and acid phosphatase activity in organic substrates and microbial inoculation further enhanced the rate of humification and enzyme activity. Although humic acids content in different microorganism-inoculated vermicomposts were statistically at par, acid phosphatase activity in these treatments was significantly (P < 0.05) different. Results revealed that microbial respiration was increased due to vermicomposting, but a reduction in microbial biomass was recorded after stabilization of organic wastes. Although vermicomposting increased the value of microbial quotient (qCO2), microbial inoculation did not show any significant effect on qCO2. The zymogram revealed that two isozymes of acid phosphatase (group II and group III) were present in all vermicompost samples and higher acid phosphatase activity in fungi-inoculated vermicomposts might be due to the presence of an additional isozyme (group I) of acid phosphatase.