Evaluation of methane production potential from livestock manures and their effect on the growth of Impatiens balsamina

Authors :

Sapna Kinattinkara, Thangavelu Arumugam

 Abstract:

Soil is the uppermost thin layer of earth’s crust which is the natural medium for the growth of plants .The objective of the study was to compare the Rabbit dung and cow dung on the growth of Impatiens balsamina, to compare the methane production of rabbit dung and cow dung, and to check whether rabbit dung and cow dung can be used as an alternative to soil. Collection of seeds and fresh rabbit dung and cow dung were collected from in and around Kangarappady, Ernakulum. They were dried and crushed to make it in a powdered form. Seeds of Impatients balsamina seeds were also collected from a single parent plant. The potting mix were prepared transferred to respective pots. The analysis was terminated on the thirtieth day. Various plant characters like plant height, number of leaves, number of flowers and total fruit weight were noted. Plant height (cm) was taken as the distance from the upper portion of the pot to the highest point of the plant stem.The result shows the morphological characters of the plants of each pot after 40 days. It shows the rabbit dung produces higher amount of biogas when compared to cow dung. It is also found that the maximum amount of
biogas can be produced after 3 days of anaerobic digestion.