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Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2002 Publication Date: 2/1/2003 Citation: Scagel, C.F. 2003. Growth and nutrient use of ericaceous plants grown in media amended with sphagnum peat moss or coir dust. HortScience. 38(1):46-54. Interpretive Summary: We compared the growth and nutrition of different ericaceous plants in response to growing medium amendment with varying proportions of sphagnum peat or coir. Plants were grown in media consisting of bark and perlite with 20% peat, 20% coir, or 10% peat and 10% coir. Sixteen weeks after planting, decreases in available P were larger in peat-amended medium than the coir-amended medium, while decreases in available NH4-N and NO3-N were larger in the coir-amended medium. Changes in P and N from the different media were due to differences in plant uptake and the medium's ability to hold nutrients. In aboveground growth increased with increasing proportion of coir in the medium while the response of root dry weight varied with cultivar. The composition of the growing medium also influenced aspects of plant marketability and quality including: leaf greenness (SPAD), plant form, and partitioning of biomass. Nutrient uptake and fertilizer use was significantly different between the media types. Depending on the cultivar we found that plants growing in the coir-amended medium had higher uptake, availability, or translocation for several nutrients in comparison to plants growing in the peat-amended medium. Uptake or availability of N, P, K, Ca, and S was enhanced for several cultivars, while Mg, Fe, and B was similar between media types. For the cultivars we tested, we found that coir is a suitable media amendment for growing ericaceous plants. Amendment of growing media for ericaceous plants with coir increased the growth of several cultivars, but we also observed that coir amendment might also influence several other aspects of plant production practices (e.g. fertilizer use), plant form, plant quality, and marketability. Technical Abstract: We compared the growth and nutrition of different ericaceous plants in response to growing medium amendment with varying proportions of sphagnum peat or coir. Plants were grown for in media consisting of bark and perlite with 20% peat, 20% coir, or 10% peat and 10% coir. Sixteen weeks after planting, decreases in available P were larger in peat-amended medium than the coir-amended medium, while decreases in available NH4-N and NO3-N were larger in the coir-amended medium. Changes in P and N from the different media were due to differences in plant uptake and the medium's ability to hold nutrients. Aboveground plant growth increased with increasing proportion of coir in the medium while the response of root dry weight varied with cultivar. The composition of the growing medium also influenced aspects of plant marketability and quality including: leaf greenness (SPAD), plant form, and partitioning of biomass. Nutrient uptake and fertilizer use was significantly different between the media types. We found that uptake or availability of N, P, K, Ca, and S was enhanced for several cultivars, while uptake or availability of Mg, Fe, and B was similar between media types. For the cultivars we tested, we found that coir is a suitable media amendment for growing ericaceous plants. Amendment of growing media for ericaceous plants with coir increased the growth of several cultivars, but we also observed that coir amendment might also influence several other aspects of plant production practices (e.g. fertilizer use), plant form, plant quality, and marketability. |
