MELON ON A FEW ECOLOGICALLY SOUND SUBSTRATES

First the recycled polyurethane ether foam mats (PUR), which can be used as a substrate for at least 10 years provided they are treated with steam every year. Moreover, they can either be recycled again afterwards or burnt under controlled conditions.

On the other hand, two more substrates for one-year growing were compared with each other; viz. felted poplar fibreboards (UNALIT-board) and loose poplar fibre flocks (UNALIT-flock).

This is organic material that can easily be composted or burnt. The more difficult the initial root-taking of the melon plant in the substrate, the earlier the harvest of the crop. Thus the PUR-mats yielded the earliest crop, followed by the UNALIT-boards and finally by the UNALIT-flocks.

Total production was as high with PUR as with UNALIT-boards, but it was markedly lower with UNALIT-flocks.

As the rockwool raising-pots in soilless growing methods also had a burdening effect on the environment, we explored the possibilities of peatpots as an ecologically sound alternative.

The latter yielded a later but equally high total production.

Finally, we were also able to demonstrate that a higher conductivity of 4 mS/cm yielded an earlier and higher production than a conductivity of 3 mS.

The sugar content of the fruit was not affected by any of the explored parameters.

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