COMPOST-BASED MEDIA AS ALTERNATIVE TO PEAT ON TEN POT ORNAMENTALS

The aims of these experiments were:

• to verify the quality of some italian composts compared to imported peat-based substrates;
• to define the requirements of each tested species in relation to physical parameters of the substrate, determined by the method of De Boodt et al. (1974).

The cultivation trials gave evidence that a peat-compost mixture allows to obtain, in most cases, plants of better quality than those cultivated in peat or compost singularly.

For most of employed species the quantity of peat can be reduced to 1/3 of the total, obtaining a substrate with optimal physical characteristics (total porosity > 85% v/v; air capacity > 30% v/v; available water between pF1 and pF2 > 10% v/v in winter and > 20% v/v in summer).

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files)