Articles
THE INFLUENCE OF THE TYPE OF SUBSTRATE ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF TOMATO TRANSPLANTS
To that end, two types of substrates were used: peat and agrofoam, each of them in three variants: A – plants sowed in peat; B – plants sowed in agrofoam, and C – plants sowed in peat, and after emerging transplanted to agrofoam.
One month after emerging, each of the variant’s 30 transplants were analyzed using the method of row variation.
Also, for transplants on agrofoam, a specific nutrient solution (with low conductivity – 1,5 mS/cm and pH – 5,5) was used.
The following averages were noted: A – 11,65 cm stem length with 6,29 leafs on each plant, B – 29,00 cm and 9,33 leafs, and C – 26,78 cm with 8,22 leafs.
Also, the variant C had a higher variance coefficient compared to the other two variants, as a result of low uniformity.
Concerning development, the number of formed flower buds was observed, with the following results: after 30 days emerging, there were no flower buds in the A variant, 100% of the plants formed first flower buds in variant B, and 48% of the plants in variant C.
