IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0078121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Composted Green Waste as a Substitute for Peat in Growth Media: Effects on Growth and Nutrition of Calathea insignis

Author

Listed:
  • Lu Zhang
  • Xiangyang Sun
  • Yun Tian
  • Xiaoqiang Gong

Abstract

Peat mined from endangered wetland ecosystems is generally used as a component in soilless potting media in horticulture but is a costly and non-renewable natural resource. The objective of this work was to study the feasibility of replacing peat with different percentages (0, 10, 30, 50, 70, 90, and 100%) of composted green waste (CGW) as growth media for the production of the ornamental plant Calathea insignis. Compared with 100% peat media, media containing CGW had improved physical and chemical characteristics to achieve the acceptable ranges. Moreover, CGW addition had increased the stability (i.e., reduced the decomposition rates) of growth media mixtures, as indicated by comparison of particle-size distribution at the start and end of a 7-month greenhouse experiment. Addition of CGW also supported increased plant growth (biomass production, root morphology, nutrient contents, and photosynthetic pigment contents). The physical and chemical characteristics of growth media and plant growth were best with a medium containing 70% CGW and were better in a medium with 100% CGW than in one with 100% peat media. These results indicate that CGW is a viable alternative to peat for the cultivation of Calathea insignis.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu Zhang & Xiangyang Sun & Yun Tian & Xiaoqiang Gong, 2013. "Composted Green Waste as a Substitute for Peat in Growth Media: Effects on Growth and Nutrition of Calathea insignis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-18, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0078121
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078121
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078121&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0078121?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rangling Li & Hongying Wang & Enze Duan & Jiayu Fan & Liangju Wang, 2022. "Rabbit Manure Compost for Seedling Nursery Blocks: Suitability and Optimization of the Manufacturing Production Process," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, December.
    2. J Jara-Samaniego & M D Pérez-Murcia & M A Bustamante & C Paredes & A Pérez-Espinosa & I Gavilanes-Terán & M López & F C Marhuenda-Egea & H Brito & R Moral, 2017. "Development of organic fertilizers from food market waste and urban gardening by composting in Ecuador," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Rangling Li & Hongyun Hao & Hui Sun & Liangju Wang & Hongying Wang, 2022. "Composted Rabbit Manure as Organic Matrix for Manufacturing Horticultural Growing Media: Composting Process and Seedling Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Roberto Calisti & Luca Regni & Daniela Pezzolla & Mirko Cucina & Giovanni Gigliotti & Primo Proietti, 2022. "Evaluating Compost from Digestate as a Peat Substitute in Nursery for Olive and Hazelnut Trees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Ajwal Dsouza & Gordon W. Price & Mike Dixon & Thomas Graham, 2021. "A Conceptual Framework for Incorporation of Composting in Closed-Loop Urban Controlled Environment Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, February.
    6. Muhammad Hasnain & Jiawei Chen & Nazeer Ahmed & Shumaila Memon & Lei Wang & Yimei Wang & Ping Wang, 2020. "The Effects of Fertilizer Type and Application Time on Soil Properties, Plant Traits, Yield and Quality of Tomato," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-14, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0078121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.