Growth & yield of crops depend on the quality of soil. The quality refers to physic-chemical factors of soil. Among all factors, presence & availability of plant nutrients play important role in the quantity & quality yield of crop. This can be achieved through by recharging the infertile soil with inorganic & organic fertilizers. The application of organic fertilizer is a better choice over adversely affecting inorganic fertilizer in the soil. Therefore, the present experiment was carried out to prepare compost (by microorganisms) & vermicompost (by earthworms) using various agricultural harvest wastes as their diets, and also to assess & compare the quality of compost & vermicompost on vegetative growth of crop seedlings.

Three sets each of seedling culture pots such as black soil, compost+ soil, and vermicompost + soil in the ratios of 1:5, 1:10 & 1:15 formulations were prepared. Seed germination of Jowar, Blackgram, Greengram & Redgram occurred after 40, 24, 24 & 48 hours respectively, and not shown any significant difference between soil, compost & vermicompost. The assessment of compost & vermicompost as biofertilizer has revealed increased biomass, length of stem, root & leaves, and more number of leaves in the seedling grown in the latter then in the former. Leaves of seedlings grown in vermicompost had deep green coloration than those in other sets. Seedlings had enhanced growth in the formulations of vermicompost followed by compost than in soil alone. Further, the formulations of 1:5 of vermicompost & compost had increased biomass (wet wt.) of seedlings than in 1:10 followed by 1:15, because any decomposed organic matter has its fertile value at certain limits (with respect to alteration in pH) & more than limit results deterioration of soil. In formulations of vermicompost & compost, the biomass of seedlings of all crops was respectively 1.5-10.0 & 1.5 – 5.0 times more than those grown in black soil alone. Hence, among all culture pots, the vermicompost of with 1:5 formulations was found more suitable fertilizer for the vegetative growth (biomass) of all crop seedlings.