Improving Physical Properties of Plant Growing Medias Using Perlite

Year 2018, , 1346 - 1350, 01.10.2018

Hasan Özer , Ömer Hulusi Dede

https://doi.org/10.16984/saufenbilder.382895

Cited By: 3

Abstract

The most widely used growing
media in the production of potted ornamental plants is peat. However, the
studies for alternative solutions are being conducted due to the reasons such
as restricted peat sources, high cost, destruction of natural environment due
to peat production and variability in the quality of produced peat. In the
relevant literature, there are two basic ideas on which the studies have
focused on. The first one is the development of new growing media using organic-origin
wastes, the second one is the preparation of the mixtures in which organic and
inorganic materials are used as a component of growingmediums. In this study
which was prepared in parallel with the relevant main ideas in the literature,
the effects of perlite utilization on the physical properties of indigenous
peat, and on those of the growing media obtained from hazelnut cinder, which is
among agricultural organic materials in our country and has considerable  potential to be the most important
alternative of peat, were investigated. For this purpose, the physical
properties of the growingmedias, prepared by mixing perlite with raw peat and
hazelnut husk, at various ratios (10,15,20,25%), were investigated, and the
results obtained were compared with sphagnum peat, and with desired properties
for ideal growingmedias, in the literature. When the results obtained from the
study were examined, it was seen that as well as the highest values were
observed in the mixtures using 25% perlite, the perlite addition increased the porosity
of raw peat by 68.25% and air capacity by 30.03%, and that the hazelnut husk
decreased air capacity, higher than the ideal values,  by 47.19%,thus approximating it  its ideal value range. With increasing perlite
ratio in the mixtures, the organic substance contents and water holding
capacities of the growingmedias decreased as their pH values increased.
However, in applications using 25% Perlite, the shrinkage rates of raw peat and
hazelnut husk were found as 17.05% and 6.41% respectively,  and the water resuction times of those were
found as 1.52 and 1.21 minutes, respectively. Based on these results, it can be
said that the most important contribution of perlite utilization for raw peat
and hazelnut husk is to decrease shrinkage rates and water resuction times, and
that this improvement will avail in preventing the damages that occur in plant
roots due to  drying and shrinking of the
growing media, and in decreasing  the
irrigation frequency.

Keywords

Perlite, peat, hazelnut husk, growing media, ornamental plant

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