IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2018) 9-1

Research article
erdFeasibility Study of Using Vermicompost Extract on Seed
Germination on Green Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var.
Jericho) and Green Batavia (Lactuca sativa L. var.
Concept ) Lettuce
VITHIRAK HUYFaculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Email: vithirakhuy168@gmail.com

CHULEEMAS BOONTHAI IWAI*
Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Email: chuleemas1@gmail.com
Received 8 February 2018

Accepted 18 May 2018(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Agriculture sector is under pressure in producing more foods in order to feed thegrowing population. Vegetable production is also the important part to solve the problem in
the agricultural market. Nowadays, organic productions are in demand in order to promotehealth awareness and food safety. Vermicompost extract is liquid biofertilizers which able
to boot up plant nutrients and plant productions. Thus, this study was conducted toinvestigate the effect of vermicompost extract on germination of green Romaine (Lactucasativa L. var. Jericho) and green Batavia (Lactuca sativa L.var. Concept) and to identify thetreatment which is suitable to enhance seed germination. The experiment was arranged in aComplete Randomized Design with 3 replications in the petri dish. The concentration ofvermicomposting extract was diluted to (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) to irrigate seeds. Seedgermination, root length, shoot length, seed vigor index, fresh weight, and dry weight weremeasured after 13 days of seed germination. The seed germination percentage of green
Romaine and Batavia lettuce were significantly (p<0.05) increased up to (86-95%) and (8795%) when irrigated with 100% vermicomposting extract as compared to control. In
conclusion, using 100% vermicomposting extract as the nutrient source could enhanceseedling growth.
Keywords vermicomposting extract, seed germination, green Batavia lettuce and green
Romaine lettuce

INTRODUCTION
The food processing industries are one of the most essential activities in the agriculture market due
to rapid economic growth. During food processing, industries produce a huge amount of organics
waste such as food and vegetable. It has been observed that this organic waste can cause disease,
air pollutant and water pollutant. However, the waste contains organic and inorganic nutrients
which can recycle to use in the agricultural field. Therefore, eco-friendly and sustainable
technology are needed to manage organic waste. Many publications have been established thatorganic waste can be used and converted into humus as vermicomposting. It is an important sourcefor plant nutrients such as N, P, and K which can enhance the plant development (Garg and Gupta,2011). Presently, more focus has been given to vermicomposting technique. This technology uses
the assistance of earthworm to stabilize the organic waste material and produce microorganism-richmedium that enhances the process of composting. After the vermicomposting, an aqueous extractof vermicompost may contain a series of bioactive molecules as well as microbial population which
may be enhanced during the production of extracts. For instance, mineral nutrients and biologically
active metabolite such as humic acid and plant regulators present in vermicompost would beextracted during the brewing cycle and those compounds also improve root development, nutrientⒸ ISERD

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uptake, and plant growth (Ancuta et al., 2013). Moreover, Lettuce is one of the essential vegetables
in agricultural market; nevertheless, producers always supply a lot of chemical fertilizers which are
not friendly to the environment and human health since they apply over limited of chemicalfertilizer. Vermicompost extract is liquid organic fertilizer which also can boot up the lettuce
production as well as promote health awareness and food safety since the organic productions are
in demand in the market. Vermicompost extract has been studied for its effect on seed germination.
Several studies have assessed on vermicompost water extract on seed germination and seed growthof tomato and lettuce (Ancuta et al., 2013). Lazcano et al. (2010) demonstrated that vermicompost
extract can enhance seed germination maritime pine (Pinus pinas Ait). Ievinsh (2011) also reported
vermicompost extract treatment differently affect to seed germination, seedling growth
physiological of vegetable species. Esteban et al. (2017) also studied the effect of germination ofSaluyot (Corchorus olitorius). There are many studies focus on the effect of vermicompost extract
on seed germination but most of them conducted with different kinds of vegetables. Therefore, The
study “feasibility study of using vermicomposting extract on seed germination and seedling green
Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var. Jericho) and green Batavia lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.var. Concept)”
will be raised to study in this paper.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of vermicompost extract on seedgermination and seed performance of green Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var. Jericho) and green
Batavia lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.var Concept) and to identify the treatment which is suitable toenhance seed germination.
METHODOLOGY
Vermicomposting Preparation
Vermicomposting was prepared with the reference (Iwai, 2011). The substrate of vermicompost
was composed of soil, cow manure, rice husk ash, vegetable in proportion ration 4:4:1:3 w/w. Thevegetable was collected from waste yard from the Si Mueng Thong market locates in Khon Kaen
province. Roi et series soil was sampled in the agricultural file, located in Khon Kaen University.
Cow manure was collected at cow farm located in the Khon Kaen University. Rice husk ash wascollected in agronomy section located in the university. Vermibed was conducted with pot size 15
cm wide and 30 cm length with the 19 cm high. Pre-compost was 15 days to avoid thermophilic
stage (increased temperature above cause earthworm death in vermicomposting process) andearthworm species (Eisenia fetida) was introduced to the substrate by using 150 earthworms per
pot with the moisture content 80 to 90%. After the pre-compost processing, vermicomposting wasmanually turn up to 12 weeks.
Vermicompost Extract
Vermicompost extract was prepared as described by Archana et al. (2009). Briefly, vermicompost
was extracted with tap water in ration 1:4 (w/v) by using the aerated method. Water was allowed tostand for 24 h for passive chlorine before mixing. Vermicompost was put in cheesecloth andmixture with tape water using aquarium air pump for 72 h. For fresh solution was kept for eachtreatment.
Seed Germination Experiment
Seed germination experiment was conducted for 13 days at Ecotoxicology Laboratory,
Department of Land Resource and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University,
Khon Kaen, Thailand. The experiment was conducted as a Completely Random Design (CRD)Ⓒ ISERD

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with three replications. Lettuce verities Roman (Lactuca sativa L. var. Jericho) and Batavia(Lactuca sativa L.var. Concept) were sterilized with deionized water for 15 minutes to remove
microbe from the seed. Fifty seeds from each varieties were put on Whatman Grade 181 No. 1
filter papers in 9 cm Petri dishes and treated with different concentration of vermicompost extract(0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%), and then incubated at 25 oc in dark cycle for 3 three days and 12 hours
light cycle for 10 days in an incubator. After completed of seed germination, seeding from eachtreatment was measured for germination percentage, root length, shoot length, seedling vigor index,
fresh weight, and dry weight.
Seed Germination Percentage Estimation
The total number of seed germination percentages were calculated following (Manisha andAngoorbala, 2015).
Total number of seed germinated in particular treatment
Germination (%) =x 100
Total number of seed treated in particular treatment
Root and Shoot Length Estimation
The root and shoot length of seed germination was measured in the centimeter scale.
Fresh and Dry Weight Estimation
Fresh and dry weight was measured using an Ohaus PA 2102 electronic balance. After fresh weightmeasurement, seeding weight was placed in a hot air oven for 80 oc for 24 hours.
Seeding Vigor Index
Seed germination, root length, and shoot length were used to calculate seed vigor index, which
followed the formula (Abdul Baki and Anderson, 1973).
Vigor index= (Mean root length + Mean shoot length) x Percentage germination
Statistical Analysis
The Statistic 10 software (version 10, USA) was used to analyze the data including the analysis ofvariance (One Way ANOVA). Treatment means were compared using least significance difference(LSD) at P< 0.05.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of seed germination of green Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var. Jericho) and Batavia(Lactuca sativa L. var. Concept) were shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Different concentration ofvermicomposting extract has different effect on seed germination of green Romaine and Batavia
lettuce. It showed that 100% of vermicomposting extract got higher germination 95 and 95% of
Romaine and Batavia lettuce. The result was similar with finding of Ancuta et al. (2013) thatgermination increased when the seed was soaked in vermicomposting extract compared with seeds
soaked with water and it was also reported that water-soluble bioactive substances such as humic
acids, phytohormones or microbial metabolites present in vermicompost extract could be responsible
for earlier emergence, increased seed germination percentage and seedling growth. Esteban et al.
(2017) reported that microbial activity in vermicompost could result in the production of significant
quality of plant growth regulators such as IAA, gibberellins, and cytokinins.

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Table 1 Effect of vermicomposting extract of green Romaine seed germination (GM), roots
length (RL), shoots length (SL), seeding vigor index (SVI), fresh weight (FW) anddry weight (DW)
Treatments
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%F value

GM (%)
86d90c92b92b95a**SL(cm)
0.560c0.566bc
0.566bc
0.586b
0.653ans

RL(cm)
2.660b
4.620b
7.546a8.286a8.520a**SVI
276.910b469.960b
746.430a821.720a875.400a**

FW (g)
0.736c0.956b
1.046ba
1.046ba
1.146a**DW(g)0.026c0.053b
0.060b
0.073a0.076a**Values in same letters in the columns are not significantly different (LSD test, p≤ 0.05), Asterisks (**) show significant
differences at the 0.01 level, Asterisk (*) shows significant differences at the 0.05 level, and (ns) shows no significant
differences between treatments

Table 2 Effect of vermicomposting extract of green Batavia seed germination (GM), roots
length (RL), shoots length (SL), seeding vigor index (SVI), fresh weight (FW) anddry weight
Treatments
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
F value

GM (%)
87d90c92b92b95a**SL(cm)
1.346b
1.526ab1.586a1.586a1.653ansRL(cm)3.380b
3.593b
5.953a6.566a6.380a**SVI
412.790a
460.800a693.680b755.440b765.870b**

FW (g)
0.863c0.996bc
1.136ba
1.176ba
1.196a*DW(g)0.050b
0.066a0.071a0.073a0.076a**Values in same letters in the columns are not significantly different (LSD test, p≤ 0.05), Asterisks (**) show significant
differences at the 0.01 level, Asterisk (*) shows significant differences at the 0.05 level, and (ns) shows no significant
differences between treatm

The longest root and shoot length of Romaine and Batavia (2.660, 3.380, 560, and 1.346 cm,respectively) were reported with 100% vermicompost extract. Esteban et al.(2017) also reported
that vermicompost can promote ecomorphological characters such as plant high and length.
Moreover, vermicompost can be able to supply balanced the nutrients to the roots and stimulate
growth and increase the organic matter content including humic substances that affect nutrient
accumulation and promote the root growth. 100% of vermicompost extract showed the highest
vigor index of Romaine and Batavia (875.4 and 765.87) which indicated that 100%
vermicomposting extract promoted healthy and vigorous seeding response compared with othertreatments. Esteban et al. (2017) also indicated that vermicompost extract could produce healthyand vigorous growth of seeding. 100% vermicompost extract also showed higher in fresh weightand dry weight of both lettuce verities (1.146, 1.196, 0.07, 0.076 g, respectively). It was also
reported that when the shoot and root were healthier, the plant weight will be heavier (Hussain etal., 2013). The result also similar with the finding of Zaller (2007) reported that vermicompost
extract can promote the tomato biomass production and it was also suggested that vermicompost
not only stimulate the plant growth but also effect inhibition of plant pathogen, rhizosphere micro
floral, nutrient uptake and beneficial of microorganism.
CONCLUSION
From this study, it could be concluded that vermicompost extract was influenced the seedgermination of green Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var. Jericho) and green Batavia (Lactuca sativa L.
var. Concept) and 100% vermicompost extract showed the best result compared with othertreatments since this concentration enhance seed germination percentage, shoot length, root length,
seed vigor index, fresh weight and dry weight of Romaine and Batavia seeds. Therefore,Ⓒ ISERD

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vermicompost extract could be used as the alternative organic fertilizer to improve the seedling
growth and crop production in the field.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks the Integrated Water Resource Management Research and Development Centrein Northeast Thailand, The Research Developing and Learning Centre on Earthworm forAgriculture and Environment, KKU research Fund, the KKU scholarship for ASEAN and GMSCountries, and research and publication scholarship of Graduate School, Khon Kaen University for
financial support.
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