Spent mushroom substrate and medical stone modified composted green waste as growth media for ornamental plant Antirrhinum majus L. and Salvia splendens.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) and/or medical stone (MS) added to composted green waste (CGW) as growth media for the cultivation of Antirrhinum majus L. (snapdragon) and Salvia splendens. (scarlet sage). With a constant amount of CGW, the addition ratios of SMS were set as 0, 25% and 50%, and MS as 0, 2.5% and 5% (the base of% was the dry weight of CGW), and different growth media were prepared according to the above proportion. After 120 days of cultivation, the growth index, ornamental index and nutrient contents of snapdragon and scarlet sage were observed and measured to identify the optimal combination of SMS and MS. The results showed that adding SMS and MS to the growth media could significantly enhance the growth of snapdragon and scarlet sage. Compared with unmodified CGW, the plant height, root length, total fresh weight, total dry weight, and carotenoid content of snapdragon were markedly increased by 83%, 66%, 65%, 56%, and 42%, respectively; the root length, shoots fresh and dry weight of scarlet sage were notably increased by 25%, 66%, and 72%. The results of the comprehensive evaluation system of plant morphological indexes showed that CGW supplemented with 5% MS (T3) was the optimal treatment, followed by T2 (2.5% MS) and T6 (25% SMS + 5% MS), which indicated that CGW modified by 5% MS was an ideal growth media for snapdragon and scarlet sage plants.