Management of Free-floating Aquatic Weeds by Making Compost and Testing its Efficacy against Root-knot Nematode on Tomato

Abstract

Aquatic weeds are one of the prime pollution causing agents in fresh water bodies of Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, free-floating aquatic weeds such as Salvinia molesta, Eichhornia crassipes, Azolla spp and Pistia stratiotes are proliferating quickly and invading rapidly to new water bodies where threatening biodiversity by impeding light penetration and altering BOD and COD of the waterbody. This research was aimed to manage the aquatic weeds by composting and testing its efficacy on root-knot nematodes. Aquatic weeds were collected, mixed with fresh cow dung in 1:1 ratio and allowed for decomposition for 21 days. The recommended dose of prepared different compost was applied to tomato along with garden compost as control. The experiment was conducted in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with four replicates. The data on nutritional qualities of the compost, plant growth parameters, and gall index were recorded. The data were subjected to ANOVA using SAS 9.1 and Tukey's HSD multiple comparison test was used to determine the best treatment combination at P.