ISHS Acta Horticulturae 99: Symposium on Substrates in Horticulture other than Soils In Situ
THE USE OF TOWN REFUSE COMPOST IN HORTICULTURAL SUBSTRATES |
| Authors: | D. De Vleeschauwer, O. Verdonck, M. De Boodt |
| Abstract:
The past years, it is getting more and more difficult to find good quality substrates and consequently prices are still increasing. Compost of bark, an organic waste product from the papermills, has already been successfully tried out as a substitute for the classical substrates. As the production of another waste product namely town refuse compost is increasing every year, it became interesting to study the possibility of using this organic material as a substrate. Trials have been carried out at several research stations with five different testplants. These growth experiments indicated that Dieffenbachia exotica, Codiaeum variegatum and Cordyline celesta can be successfully grown in mixtures of bark or peat with up to 50 % town refuse compost. Mixing 50 % town refuse compost with peat or bark resulted in a decrease of plant height and number of leafs for the cultivation of Fatshedera; using 25 % town refuse compost however, no differences could be observed in comparison with the control (pure peat or bark-compost). Although there was no significant difference in growth of Calathea makoyana in peat or barkcompost substrates mixed with 25 and 50 % town refuse compost, these substrates cannot be used for this kind of plants because of the occurence of severe chlorosis in the mixtures with town refuse compost. | |
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