PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PEAT USED IN HORTICULTURE

As far as we are concerned, a “good” substrate is easy to define : it is one that serves plants well.
Apart from providing them with mechanical anchorage and support, it satisfies three important requirements of the plants :

1. It stores and supplies them with water.

2. It aerates their roots

3. It stores and supplies the minerals essential to their growth.

The better the substrate performs all these functions, the better it is.

The first two functions — water and oxygen economy — are determined by the physical properties of the substrate, the third function — nutrient economy — by its chemical properties.
So in discussing the physical properties of the substrate, we are dealing with the plants’ water and oxygen supply.

I Symposium on Artificial Media in Horticulture

V. Puustjärvi

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1974.37.3