Preparation of Composts from Weed Residues and Testing Their Effect on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Population

The residues of the weeds viz., Lantana camara Linn, and Parthenium hysterophorus Linn., left over after extracting the antimicrobial principles, were focused upon by considering it as resource. Both the residues were composted with the help of fungal starter cultures and nutrient amendments for hastening the process of composting and enriching the product. The fungal starter culture effectively converted the Lantana and Parthenium residues remained after extraction into Lantana and Parthenium composts respectively within a very short span. An attempt had also been made to analyse the effect of composts formed on arbuscular mycorrhizal population. Application of Lantana and Parthenium composts exhibited positive effect on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal population in terms of spore count and per cent root colonization.