Articles
ALTERNATIVE NURSERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: CLOSED-LOOP AND HIGH RETENTION MAT
Article number
889_74
Pages
581 – 586
Language
English
Abstract
Current container-grown plant production practices utilize high volumes of both irrigation and fertilization to maximize plant growth.
Inefficiencies of these management practices may lead to high chemical externalities, with environmental damage.
Moreover in the upcoming future the water availability for nursery irrigation is destined to decrease.
As a consequence the nursery industry must increase water use efficiency for plant production.
In order to test different nursery management systems an experiment was conducted at Fondazione Minoprio in 2006. Nine thousand plants of three cultivars of Rosa hybrida (Cubana, Innocentia and Pink Emily) were cultivated in 1,5 L containers.
Three different nursery management systems, realized in three nurseries of 300 m2 each-one, were compared.
The first nursery was managed in a traditional way: overleaf irrigation with static sprinklers and without water recovery.
Plants were fertilized with a controlled-release fertilizer added to the growing medium.
The second nursery was a closed-loop system: overleaf irrigation with static sprinklers and recovers of the excess of solution in a 50 m3 artificial basin for reuse.
Plants were fertirrigated.
The third nursery was realized with a high water retention mat (AquamatTM), in which the nutrient solution is served out directly in the mat and released to plants by capillarity.
Water consumption for each nursery was recorded weekly during the trial and at the end of the experiment, and both shoot and root biomasses were measured.
For each cultivar shoot biomass resulted higher where the retention mat was used, while no differences were observed between traditional and closed-loop management.
Greater root biomass was observed where the traditional management was used.
The closed-loop system allowed 11% of water saving, while the sub-irrigation system allowed saving 41% of water if compared to the traditional system.
Inefficiencies of these management practices may lead to high chemical externalities, with environmental damage.
Moreover in the upcoming future the water availability for nursery irrigation is destined to decrease.
As a consequence the nursery industry must increase water use efficiency for plant production.
In order to test different nursery management systems an experiment was conducted at Fondazione Minoprio in 2006. Nine thousand plants of three cultivars of Rosa hybrida (Cubana, Innocentia and Pink Emily) were cultivated in 1,5 L containers.
Three different nursery management systems, realized in three nurseries of 300 m2 each-one, were compared.
The first nursery was managed in a traditional way: overleaf irrigation with static sprinklers and without water recovery.
Plants were fertilized with a controlled-release fertilizer added to the growing medium.
The second nursery was a closed-loop system: overleaf irrigation with static sprinklers and recovers of the excess of solution in a 50 m3 artificial basin for reuse.
Plants were fertirrigated.
The third nursery was realized with a high water retention mat (AquamatTM), in which the nutrient solution is served out directly in the mat and released to plants by capillarity.
Water consumption for each nursery was recorded weekly during the trial and at the end of the experiment, and both shoot and root biomasses were measured.
For each cultivar shoot biomass resulted higher where the retention mat was used, while no differences were observed between traditional and closed-loop management.
Greater root biomass was observed where the traditional management was used.
The closed-loop system allowed 11% of water saving, while the sub-irrigation system allowed saving 41% of water if compared to the traditional system.
Authors
R. Piatti, P. Frangi, G. Amoroso
Keywords
closed-loop system, fertigation, irrigation efficiency, Rosa hybrida, water use efficiency
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