Water consumption and retention of crushed bamboo as an agricultural organic material

Abstract

Abstract. Since 1960, the development of the chemical products and the aging of farmer have led to the increase of the desolate bamboo grove which have caused the bamboo invasion to the farm and the simplification in the forest ecosystem in the western Japan. As one of the solution for such problems, the crushed bamboo (CB) that made by mashing with high pressure was introduced. It has been used to cover the soil surface as the mulching stuff and soil improving materials. The objective of this study is to clarify the water saving effect of crushed bamboo mulching and to develop the new agricultural organic material like a rock wool (RW) medium. Two type of pot cultivation experiments were conducted. One was to evaluate the effect of covering the soil surface with the crushed bamboo. The other was to evaluate the possibility as the agricultural medium. As a results, the crushed bamboo covering on the soil with the 2 cm and 4 cm thick prevented the decrease of the soil water content as well as plastic film mulching, and reduced the total amount of the irrigated water 20% less than no mulching. Second, crushed bamboo medium showed high water retention close to rock wool and also showed high water permeability. The result of the pot cultivation of tomato, there were no significant differences in the growth between crushed bamboo and rock wool medium. The use of bamboo will lead to conserve the rural environment.