Articles
Growth of aromatic and ornamental species in sods for different gardening uses
Article number
1345_55
Pages
411 – 416
Language
English
Abstract
The implantation of fully developed and rooted live plant sods for different uses in gardening provides great economic, technical and time advantages.
Therefore, studying attractive species that can be adapted to this use is crucial to improve the quality of green roofs, the regeneration of slopes or simply the appearance of conventional gardens.
The aim of this work has been to compare the growth speed the capacity to cover the surface and to form stable structures of sod of different aromatic and ornamental species (peppermint, thyme, oregano, helicrysum, soleirolia and lysimachia). Two substrates of different characteristics and two coconut fibre blankets of different weight were also compared as a support.
The sod structures were elaborated on a metallic mesh to ensure good drainage.
They consist of coconut blanket, substrate and cuttings of the different species, which were inserted without using growth hormones.
The test began in June, under greenhouse conditions, and lasted for 6 months.
Photographs were taken periodically to evaluate the foliar coverage, and the weight of plant aerial and root biomass were measured at the end of the trial.
The species that showed the best foliar coverage at the end of the trial after 6 months of growth were lysimaquia, peppermint and soleirolia, reaching in average terms coverage greater than 75% of the substrate surface.
This was confirmed by the dry weight values of the aerial part also at the end of the assay.
In general there were no significant differences in the growth of the species regarding the different materials used as substrates or the different blanket thicknesses.
It should be noted that the foliar coverage of most of the species began to decrease once the colder months of autumn entered.
Therefore, studying attractive species that can be adapted to this use is crucial to improve the quality of green roofs, the regeneration of slopes or simply the appearance of conventional gardens.
The aim of this work has been to compare the growth speed the capacity to cover the surface and to form stable structures of sod of different aromatic and ornamental species (peppermint, thyme, oregano, helicrysum, soleirolia and lysimachia). Two substrates of different characteristics and two coconut fibre blankets of different weight were also compared as a support.
The sod structures were elaborated on a metallic mesh to ensure good drainage.
They consist of coconut blanket, substrate and cuttings of the different species, which were inserted without using growth hormones.
The test began in June, under greenhouse conditions, and lasted for 6 months.
Photographs were taken periodically to evaluate the foliar coverage, and the weight of plant aerial and root biomass were measured at the end of the trial.
The species that showed the best foliar coverage at the end of the trial after 6 months of growth were lysimaquia, peppermint and soleirolia, reaching in average terms coverage greater than 75% of the substrate surface.
This was confirmed by the dry weight values of the aerial part also at the end of the assay.
In general there were no significant differences in the growth of the species regarding the different materials used as substrates or the different blanket thicknesses.
It should be noted that the foliar coverage of most of the species began to decrease once the colder months of autumn entered.
Authors
N. López-López, A. López-Fabal, M.I. Iglesias-Díaz, S. Lamosa-Quinteiro
Keywords
green ground cover, foliar coverage, cuttings, oregano, peppermint, thymus
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