Millicompost: an alternate biocompost for forest nurseries

Soil macrofauna is known to play a significant role in the disintegration and decomposition of organic material added to the soil. Millipedes are the major macrofauna involved in litter decomposition in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of the world. Millicompost is the process in which millipedes are employed for composting plant wastes. Like vermicomposting, millicompost is an ecofriendly technique involving no pollution. Hence an attempt has been made to compost invasive weed, Parthenium hysterophorus Linn. using two millipede species viz., Harpaphe haydeniana Wood, 1984 and Spinotarsus colosseus Attems, 1928. Among the composting species chosen for the present study, millipede species, H. haydeniana is highly efficient in composting the P. histerophorus leaf litter into useful organic manure than S. colosseus and ordinary compost. Physicochemical characters were significantly higher in millicompost than the ordinary compost. Increase in concentration of N, P, K, Ca and Mg was observed in compost produced with the help of millipede than ordinary compost. The narrow C/N ratio was also observed in millicompost than ordinary compost. It was observed that millicompost is superior and has positive effect on seed germination and growth of five tree species viz., Tectona grandis, Casuarina equisetifolia, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Gmelina arborea, and Ailanthus excelsa over ordinary compost. Hence, millicompost may be considered as alternate compost for the production of quality planting stock.