PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON THE POSSIBILITY OF USING STRAW AS NATURAL SUBSTRATA FOR GROWING CUCUMBER UNDER PLASTIC GREENHOUSE

There are many plastic tunnels were erected under bad soil conditions or even those which were in good soil after some intensive cultivation system start to suffer from deterioration as saline problems or soil diseases.

Preliminary study of the possibility of using the rice straw to improvement the soil conditions under plastics in growing cucumber crop were carried out in the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kafr El-Sheikh during the winter season of 1990/1991 and the spring season of 1991.

The study was included four treatments:

1. Straw bales full buried in the soil.

2. Straw bales half buried in the soil.

3. Straw bales erected on the soil surface.

4. Normal cultivation in the soil as a control.

The best results were obtained from the half burned treatment during winter cultivation and from full burned treatment during spring cultivation.
The increases of the total yield between the best treatments and control were 0.7 and 0.33 kg/plant in winter and spring cultivations respectively.

Symposium on Soil and Soilless Media under Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climates

F. El-Aidy

Substrate, cucumber

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.323.39