EFFECT OF DOSE AND KIND OF COMPOST ON THE QUALITY OF SEEDLINGS OF WATERMELON GRAFTED ONTO PUMPKIN IN INDUSTRIAL SEEDBED

Peats are the basis of most of the substrates used in nurseries due to their excellent chemical, physical and biological properties.
Their high demand is provoking the resources depletion and the ecosystem degradation where they are located.
This work studies the effect of the composition of different mixtures of substrates based on white peat and compost coming from Vegetal Wastes (VW), urban solid wastes (USW) and vine pomace on quality of grafted watermelon (watermelon Citrullus lanatus ‘Romalinda’). Three doses were made of each compost with white peat, whose value depended on electrical conductivity (EC) fixed at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 dS m^-1, and they were compared with 100% white peat and the standard mixture used in the commercial nursery.
Germination and quality parameters of seedlings were evaluated.
The results showed that the partial substitution of peat in the mixture of substrates for nursery in watermelon seedling is possible and the dose shall depend on compost salinity and the type of salts that it has.

V International Symposium on Seed, Transplant and Stand Establishment of Horticultural Crops

M. Díaz-Pérez, M. de Cara, F. Camacho

compost, peat, substrate, watermelon, nursery

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.898.33