ISHS Acta Horticulturae 357: III International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climates
EARTHWORM HUMUS EFFECT ON PRODUCTION, QUALITY AND PROCOCITY OF ZINNIA ELEGANS J., CALIISTEPHUS CHINESIS N. AND CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L., UNDER POLYETHILENE GREENHOUSE |
| Authors: | A. Contreras, S. Sanches, P. Seeman, G. Verdugo |
| Abstract:
The Mapuche native population of the country is concentrated, under precarious socioeconomical conditiones, in small farms, in the rural areas of the Region of La Araucania of Chile. Being the scarce area of their farms their main restrictions, the Faculty of Agronomical Sciences of the University of La Frontera has been doing research towards intensifying the agriculture of these farms, particularly with cultivation under plastic. The results of an investigation carried out during the period 1991–1992 in Farm Los Pilos de Muco (10 km. south of the town of Lautaro) are presented in this paper. The effects of using earthworm humus as sustrate, under a polyethilene greenhouse on the production, quality and precocity of the floral species: Zinnia elegans J., Callistephus chinensis N. and Calendula officinalis L. was studied. The treatments studied were constituted by 5 sustrates formed by an mixture of soil and an increasing earthworm humus percentage (0%; 25%; 50%; 75% and 100%). The results show that the vegetative development of the three species tends to increase as the humus content in the sustrate increased until reaching a 100%. The flower and seed production presented similar tendencies, but are lower than those described for the vegetative development. It seems that the humus affects negatively the germination percentage of Zinnia harvested seeds. The precocity of flower productions was favored with the use of increasing humus, which seems to be associated to temperature increases of soil detected. | |
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