Abstract:
The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is one of the most important commercial fruits of Sri Lanka,considered as a popular fruit of tropical climate. Among those fruits pineapple bottling process disposes majority of solid waste. The pineapple solid waste originates as pineapple peel, crown and the juice extracted crushed core. On an average fresh pineapple generates approximately 70% of the waste. That large portion of waste acts as an environmental hazard due to the absence of a proper method to discard them.
Among the alternatives to handle the disposal of that waste, aerobic decomposition of fruit waste was achieved as the most effective solution. Pineapple waste (PW) can be used as a substrate for organic manure preparation, but the difficulties encountered in the process are moisture content as 85%/wt, sugars 13%/wt and low pH of 3.6 to 4.2. Eight samples of compost piles were prepared by selecting the different proportions of dried pineapple peel and core, fresh peel and crown, Lime, Apatite together with Effective Microorganism (EM) solution which contained selected species of compost accelerator microorganisms. For all the samples C/N ratio of raw materials was adjusted to an optimum value. All the optimum
environmental conditions favourable for composting microorganisms were monitored and controlled. Temperature was recorded daily, pH and moisture were measured in 3 day intervals. Changes of colour and odour of the composts were observed. Samples were subjected to Chemical analysis after 5-8 weeks maturation period.
All the composts were reached to their thermophilic conditions and indicate their pathogen free behavior. However composts with EM solution used were reached to their maturity stage rapidly than others. But there were no significant difference in macro and micro nutrients in between EM used and other samples. The minimum nutrient requirement in Sri Lankan Standard specification for compost prepared from municipal solid waste and agricultural waste was described as Nitrogen(N) - 1%, Phosphorus(P)- 0.5% and Potassium(K)-1%. The total N in experimental samples was varied as 1.6% to 2.6%. Samples with Lime and Cow dung contained lower nitrogen content than others. The K content of the samples were in the range of 3% to 6.3% and the P was varied in between 0.2% to 0.4%. However K content in all the samples were slightly increased. Since P content is low in all samples, it could be increased by adding Apatite as a P source. Therefore from the findings it can be concluded that, the solid based PW can be effectively utilized as a nutrient rich, pathogen free environmentally friendly organic manure for pineapple cultivation.
