Gas diffusion and air-filled porosity: Effect of some oversize fragments in growing media

Abstract

Large particles are often added to growing media to improve air-filled porosity, an often-reported growth-limiting factor. Previous studies have shown that large fragments can leave air-filled porosity unchanged and actually decrease the air exchange characteristics in peat:bark and pure peat media, with an adverse effect on plant growth. Thirteen different growing mixes composed of perlite, bark, peat, sand, rockwool, wood and coco fibre, in which the size of the larger fractions was varied, were tested. Air-filled porosity, easily available water, pore effectiveness coefficient, and diffusivity were examined in these mixes. Air-filled porosity was found to be the highest in mixes where the largest fraction was composed of coarser particles. Pore effectiveness coefficient was found to decrease with the increasing coarseness of the largest fractions. Gas diffusivity was found to be highest when intermediate (2–4 mm) fragments were used as the largest fraction of the mixes. These findings applied to impermeable, disk- or spherically shaped, coarse fragments (perlite, coco hulls, bark), but did not apply to threadlike coarse material (wood fibres). Gas diffusivity values (at a water potential of −0.75 kPa) obtained for rockwool, the peat:bark mix containing 2- to 4-mm bark particles, the peat:medium wood fibre mix, the peat:fine perlite (0.8–2 mm) mix and the pure fine coconut medium were not statistically different one from another. Air-filled porosity was negatively correlated to the fractions less than 1 mm, between 0 and 0.2 mm and between 0.2 and 0.8 mm. Easily available water, pore effectiveness coefficient and gas diffusivity were not correlated to particle size distribution, indicating that these properties cannot be estimated based on particle size and must instead be measured directly. Key words: Aetion, peat substrates, perlite, bark, available water