Decomposed Attalea phalerata Mart. ex Spreng wood trunk as an alternative of substrate for basilicum transplant production

Abstract

Attalea phalerata Mart. ex Spreng is a very abundant palm tree in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, and it is very common to find decomposed woody trunks spread in the vegetation. This renewable matter could be used as an alternative substrate for transplant production of several horticultural species, such as Ocimum basilicum L. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk as substrate in the O. basilicum transplant production. The experiments were carried out in the greenhouse of Embrapa Pantanal, Corumba, Brazil, between August and October of 2011. For Experiment 1 and 2, the treatments were randomly designed with three replicates each. Substrates containing pure decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk, pure commercial horticultural substrate, and mixtures of soil + organic compost, decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk and sand, and decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk + organic compost, were tested. Emergence percentage at 6, 13, and 22 days after sowing, emergence speed index, and shoot fresh mass tests were performed. The Tukey-Kramer test at 5% of probability was used for mean comparisons. According to the results, for Experiment 1, there were no significant differences among the means of the emergence percentage, emergence speed index, and shoot fresh mass. For emergence, the means of decomposed wood trunk, commercial substrate, and mixture of soil, organic compost, and sand, were 29.16, 21.36, and 23.96, respectively. For emergence speed index, the mean values followed the same pattern. In the shoot fresh mass, the means were 0.11 g for the decomposed woody trunk, 0.17 g for the commercial substrate, and 0.22 g for the mixture. For Experiment 2, pure commercial horticultural substrate and pure decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk promoted better results for all parameters. By the results, the conclusion was that decomposed A. phalerata wood trunk could be used as substrate to produce O. basilicum transplants.