Understanding and optimizing the physical properties of growing media for soilless cultivation

Author(s):  
Jean Caron ◽  
Jean-Charles Michel
Author(s):  
Jean Caron ◽  
◽  
Jean-Charles Michel ◽  

From the end of the last century and the beginning of this millennium, the design and use of growing media have rapidly evolved to respond to new needs and constraints. Additional concepts in soil physics have been developed to cope with these changes. The beginning of this millennium has also witnessed increasing use of automation and the development of real-time sensors and computer models that could benefit the overall field of growing media. With such real-time response system capabilities, there is a clear need to introduce dynamic concepts about gas and water movement in growing media to optimize productivity and limit environmental impacts. This chapter emphasizes the latest development around some of the critical physical concepts and the factors affecting them. It presents a case study illustrating their use in growing media design based on future development in this field.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nasrul Hazzeem Ab Rauf ◽  
Shafeeqa Shahruddin

Rockmelon (Cucumis melo L.) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, which can adapt to various soil and climate areas, especially in Malaysia. The production of rockmelon in Malaysia has highly declined, and for this reason, farmers have opted to use the concept of soilless cultivation due to it benefits accrued from soilless media such as cocopeat, perlite, and burnt rice husk. The study was carried out to determine the effect of different growing media on the physical morphology of rockmelon seedlings. This experiment was set up using RCBD arrangements with four replications. Different growing media used were: (i) 100% Black Soil (BS), (ii) 75% cocopeat + 15% burnt rice husk + 10% perlite (M1) and (iii) 75% cocopeat + 20% burnt rice husk + 5% perlite (M2). The parameters measured were plant height, number of leaves and total leaves area, and stem girth. The data were collected within two weeks after transplanting. The parameters measured were subjected to ANOVA and LSD was applied to compare means. In this study, rockmelon seedlings treated on BS showed significantly (P<0.001) the highest plant height, number of leaves per plant, and total leaves area and stem girth. Seedlings on soilless M1, however, grew in slightly good conditions, as it showed the insignificantly higher values on morphological parameters measured. Thus, BS is still suitable for better use of media for 15 days old rockmelon seedlings (after transplanting). It gives the optimum conditions for adapting seedlings to the new exposure environment.


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