Browsing by Author "Binte Mostafiz, Suraiya"

Plant production in soilless systems is attracting increased interest day by day. The major reason for these interest is the fact that soilless medium can help to eliminate soil-borne diseases and give an understanding of plant nutritional requirements. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the suitability of chemically and physically modified wood shavings as growing media for horticultural crop production. Five different wood shavings derived from Scots pine trees, namely untreated wood, heat treated wood, organic acid treated wood, Q-Treat, Q-Treat and organic acid treated wood, along with mixtures of peat and Q-Treat as 50/50 v/v (P50Q50), 25/75 (v/v) (P25Q75) and peat (control ) were used. In order to assess the characteristics of the growing media phytotoxicity, pH, water holding capacity, N immobilization, EC, water content of the substrates were analysed. Plant performances on the substrates was evaluated by observing the vegetative and generative growth of Hosta ‘Golden Tiara’ and strawberry ‘Elsanta’ plants. Q-Treat, organic acid treated wood and P50Q50 showed a high water holding capacity. No nitrogen immobilization was observed in Q-Treat. At the same time, EC and water content of the substrates were favourable for both Hosta ‘Golden Tiara’ and strawberry production. Hosta ‘Golden Tiara’ plants grew satisfactorily on all the substrates but the visual quality of the plants was unacceptable on untreated wood. For strawberry, vegetative growth was strong on peat and P50Q50. Least runners were formed on P25Q75 and all of the wood substrates. However, the yield from strawberries was highest on peat and P25Q75. The quality of strawberry fruits on wood substrates was equal to that on peat. In conclusion, based on the results obtained in this experiment, 50% of peat may be replaced by 50% Q-Treat in soilless cultivation for Hosta ‘Golden Tiara’ and 75% of peat may be replaced by Q-Treat in soilless strawberry production.