Evaluation of compost, vermicompost and their teas produced from rice straw as affected by addition of different supplements

Ten treatments were prepared to find out the optimal combinations of different materials to be added to rice straw to produce high quality compost and vermicompost. The effect of addition of N, P and K either in organic or inorganic form as well as addition of bio-accelerator i.e. Trichoderma harzianum NRRL 13019 and Phanerorchaete chrysosporium NRRL 6359 were studied. Another set of the same 10 treatments was prepared by adding earthworm namely Eisenia fetida to each of the plastic bin which containing the pre-composted materials when the temperature steadily reached 30 °C i.e. after finishing the thermophilic phase. The composting process was continued in both sets up to 16 weeks. Tea was prepared using compost and vermicompost which were produced from the four best treatments.Results revealed that the finished products of compost and vermicompost are free from total and fecal coliforms as well as Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. The values of tested parameters of compost and vermicompost that produced from rice straw supplemented with cattle dung, organic P and K and fungal accelerator (treatment No. 7) were within the recommended levels of high quality products.