Evaluating Feasibility of Producing Fermented Organic Fertilizer with Vegetable Waste

Food waste (FW) has been recognized as a critical problem in Korea and many research was conducted to efficiently utilize or treat FW. Main purpose of this research was to evaluate a feasibility for producing fermented organic fertilizer with vegetable waste (VW). Three different organic materials (saw dust, coco peat, and waste mushroom media) were mixed with VW at the rate of 30, 40, 50% respectively. Total days of composting experiment were 35 days and each sub samples were collected at every 5 days from starting of composting. Result showed that inner temperature of composting was increased to 60±4°C within 5~10 days depending on varied organic materials and mixing ratio. Among different treatment, the highest increase of inner temperature was observed when 30% of saw dust was mixed with VW. After finishing composting experiment, maturity of each compost was evaluated with solvita and germination test. Maturity index (MI) of each treatment was ranged between 5~7 indicating that manufactured fertilizer was curing or finished stage. Calculated germination index (GI) was at the range of 57.83~101.16 depending on organic materials and mixing ratio. Both MI and GI showed that manufactured fertilizer was met for fertilizer criteria while control (VW only) was not adequate for composting. Overall, VW can be utilized for making organic fertilizer mixing with saw dust, coco peat and more research should be conducted to make high quality of organic fertilizer with vegetable waste.