Abstract
Tomato production under greenhouse conditions needs vigorous seedlings to reduce the loss of plants after the transplant. Different local substrates such as agave bagasse, pine bark and coconut fiber complemented with peat, expanded clay, vermiculite and pure peat for tomato seedlings production were tested. The seed germination, root ball compaction, height of the seedling, stem diameter, and total dry weight were quantified. The stem diameter observed in Agave - bagasse + peat + expanded - clay + vermiculite (30:60:5:5 v/v) (BMTAEV3), Agave - bagasse + pine - bark + peat + expanded - clay + vermiculite (30:30:30:5:5) (BMCPTAEV4), Agave - bagasse + peat + expanded - clay + vermiculite (50:30:10:10) (BMTAEV5), Sphagnum peat (SUNSHINE® 3) 100% (M3SC), and Agave - bagasse + peat + expanded - clay + vermiculite (40:40:10:10) (BMTAEV6) treatments were in acceptable parameter range to commercial use, but BMTAEV3, BMTAEV5, and BMTAEV6 treatments show better germination, root ball compaction, a bigger height and diameter, getting tomato seedlings with vigor to the transplant. The local substrata overcome the commercial growth medium parameters in seedlings evaluation. It is shown that mixtures of agave-bagasse with expanded clay, and vermiculite are a substrate alternative for tomato seedlings production, reducing the use of expensive and scarce material such as peat by up to between 40 and 60% (v/v). Key words: Agave by-product, parameters, substrate, transplant, tomato seedlings.
Highlights
The tomato crop (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetables worldwide
This research aims to identify the most suitable combination of peat moss with organic materials based on pine bark, agave bagasse, and coconut fiber for tomato seedlings production as alternative substrate to reduce the peat moss pure implementation
The T1=BMTAEV3, T3=BMCPTAEV4, T4=FCMTAEV, T5=BMTAEV5 and T8= BMTAEV6 treatments reached the highest percentages of germination
Summary
The tomato crop (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetables worldwide. Mexico in 2018 ranked ninth worldwide with a production of 4,559,375 tons (Balcha et al, 2015; SIAP-SAGARPA, 2020; FAO, 2020), is valuable because of the flavor and beneficial health properties of its secondary compounds (Slimestad and Verheul, 2009; Shah et al, 2015; Alam et al, 2019; Bailoni, 2020). It is cultivated in open-air and greenhouse conditions, but in both cases, is necessary vigorous seedlings, that guarantee the uniformity in seeds germination, and a fast growth for an efficient production (Herrera et al, 2008; Ozer and Kandemir, 2016). Peat is considered a scarce resource, expensive, and because of its unsustainable exploitation, its use has been reduced and restricted (Zárate, 2013; Ceglie et al, 2015; Chrysargyris et al, 2017; AbdelRazzaka et al, 2019); even in some countries its exploitation has been prohibited encouraging the use of organic wastes as a substrate instead of their disposal (Moral et al, 2013; Milinkovic et al, 2019; Xue and Farrell, 2020)
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