COMPOST AS GROWING MEDIUM: CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS

The demand for peat as a substrate for plant pot culture has remarkably increased in recent years thus reducing the availability of the resource, worsening its quality and increasing its cost.

These problems started a search for qualitatively and economically competitive alternative sources of organic matter.

With regard to this attention was paled to the exploitation of waste materials containing great amounts of organic matter and mineral elements (macro- and micro-elements) and having suitable physical characteristics as potting media for plant growth.

Furthermore waste recycling is a matter of great interest nowadays for its energy saving implications and as a means of preserving environmental resources.

International Symposium on Horticultural Substrates other than Soil in situ

P. Nappi, R. Barberis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.342.28