Effect of growing media from agriculture waste onseed germination of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. ‘Sida’)

At present, demand is increasing for pre-started tomato seedlings, so more people are interested in producing tomato seedlings on a commercial scale.
There is a need to find a low-priced, high-quality growing medium made from locally sourced materials.
This research aimed to test growing media made from agricultural by-products for starting tomato seeds.
The experiment was planned in complete randomized design (CRD) with 4 replications. ‘Sida’ tomato seeds were planted in plug tray (104 plugsper tray), each filled with a different planting medium: treatment 1 was peat moss as the control; treatment 2 was coco coir:rice husks:rice husk ash:filter cake at the rate of 2:1:2:2; treatment 3 was coco coir:rice husks:rice husk ash:LDD12 biofertilizer at the rate of 2:1:2:2; treatment 4 was coco coir:rice husks:rice husk ash:LDD12 biofertilizer at the rate of 2:1:2:1; treatment 5 was coco coir:rice husks:rice husk ash:filter cake:LDD12 biofertilizer at the rate of 2:1:2:2:2; treatment 6 was coco coir:rice husks:rice husk ash:filter cake:LDD12 biofertilizer at the rate of 2:1:2:2:1. It was found that after 7 days the highest germination rate of tomato (87.25%) was grown in treatment 1 (control), but there was no significant difference from treatments 2, 4, 5, and 6 (75.60, 75.36, 72.01, and 72.83%, respectively), and after 14 days there were no statistically significant differences in germination rates among the different growing media tested.

III International Conference on Agricultural and Food Engineering

P. Dittakit, S. Worada

growing media, agriculture waste, seed germination, tomato

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1152.18