Production of Cucumber Seedlings in Alternative Substrates With Different Compositions of Agricultural Residues

Abstract

Studies on the use of agricultural residues as an alternative to commercial substrates have become fundamental tominimising the risk of environmental contamination resulting from inadequate disposal, as well as reducing seedling production costs. This research involved an evaluation of growth variables and quality of cucumber seedlings produced in substrates with different compositions of agricultural waste with a view to providing substitutes for commercial substrate. The experiment was based on a completely randomised design, with six treatments and ten replicates. There were five treatments with increasing proportions of moinha/decreasing proportions of carbonized rice husk (0/40, 10/30, 20/20, 30/10 and 40/0%) and fixed proportions of coconut fibre (15%), eggshell (5%), pine bark (40%), and one commercial substrate treatment as the control (Bioplant®). The variables evaluated were: electrical conductivity of the substrate, plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, Dickson quality index (DQI) and dry matter of roots and above ground parts. Results show that alternative substrates can replace commercial substrate without impairing the quality of cucumber seedlings. However, the substrate containing 40% of moinha, 0% of rice husk, 15% of coconut fibre, 5% of eggshell and 40% of pine bark resulted in the highest values for all evaluated variables and appears to be the most promising alternative substrate for the production of cucumber seedlings.

Assessing Quantitative Criteria for Characterization of Quality Categories for Grafted Watermelon Seedlings

“…Since this parameter was comprised of shoot dry weight and length (which is similar for the quality categories), biomass accumulation is decisive for the production of high quality seedlings at the nursery. DQI is commonly used for the evaluation of forest or fruit tree seedlings, but recently it has also been employed for assessing horticultural species such as cucumber, muskmelon and tomato [16][17][18]. Even though the parameter incorporates a number of destructive measurements, it is a useful indicator of seedling quality and plantation performance [19] since its values was correlated with the quality categories in our study.…”

Tópicos em Agroecologia - Volume 2

“…Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho foram superiores aos alcançados por , que ao testarem níveis crescentes de moinha de café e decrescentes de Bioplant®, em substratos compostos por casca de arroz carbonizada (40%), fibra de coco (15%), casca de ovo (5%) na produção de mudas de pepino, não obtiveram valores maiores que 9,72 cm, aos 21 DAS. Guisolfi et al (2018), ao avaliarem as variáveis de crescimento de mudas de pepino produzidas em substratos com diferentes composições de resíduos agrícolas, obtiveram valor máximo em torno de 11,8 cm. Há de se ponderar que os autores avaliaram as mudas aos 23 DAS, tempo superior quando comparado ao tempo de avaliação deste trabalho (13 DAS).…”

“…De acordo com a tabela 2, verifica-se que todos os tratamentos com níveis crescentes de bagaço de uva e decrescentes de substrato comercial (T1 ao T5) foram estatisticamente superiores (p≤0,05) quando comparado ao uso exclusivo de substrato comercial (tratamento controle), para a variável peso da matéria seca de raiz. Os valores obtidos neste trabalho (0,036 a 0,044 g) foram superiores aos encontrados por Guisolfi et al (2018), que ao avaliarem as variáveis de crescimento e a qualidade de mudas de pepino produzidas em substratos com diferentes proporções crescentes de moinha/decrescentes de casca de arroz (0/40; 10/30; 20/20; 30/10 e 40/0%) e proporções fixas de fibra de coco (15%), casca de ovo (5%) e casca de pinus (40%), obtiveram valor máximo de 0,037g.…”

Agricultural residues as substrates in the production of formosa papaya, okra and zucchini seedlings

“…In general, the results obtained in this study show the beneficial effect of the organic compost when used together with the coffee chaff. This combination enables the use of a higher proportion of coffee chaff because, when it was used with other materials in the composition of an alternative substrate, it led to seedlings with good quality only when present in smaller proportions, as verified by Krause et al (2017), Guisolfi et al (2018), Meneghelli et al (2017;, Almeida et al (2018a), among others.…”