Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium
Tomato is an important horticultural crop as it provides income and contributes to food security for Rwandan citizens. Besides its importance, its production is hampered by the use of a soil-based growing medium which results in the production of low-quality transplants. This is mainly attributed to...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/ats-2022-0021 |
| _version_ | 1797817266010587136 |
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| author | Nkurunziza Ephrem Nyalala Samuel Umuhoza Karemera Noëlla Josiane |
| author_facet | Nkurunziza Ephrem Nyalala Samuel Umuhoza Karemera Noëlla Josiane |
| author_sort | Nkurunziza Ephrem |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Tomato is an important horticultural crop as it provides income and contributes to food security for Rwandan citizens. Besides its importance, its production is hampered by the use of a soil-based growing medium which results in the production of low-quality transplants. This is mainly attributed to the unaffordability of peat moss to small-scale farmers in Rwanda. Hence, a greenhouse nursery experiment was carried out at the Rwanda-Israel Horticulture Centre of Excellence to search for an alternative growing medium to peat moss. Nine different growing media were formulated from a mixture at different ratios of sand, goat manure, and carbonised rice husks. The seeds were sown in propagation trays. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and means were separated using Tukey’s honestly significant difference test at p ≤ 0.05. The data analysis was carried out using SAS software version 9.2. The results revealed that sand + goat manure + carbonised rice husk 50 %: 10 %: 40 % (T8) was comparable to T1 (peat moss 100 %) in producing higher quality seedlings during both trials with a mean quality index of 0.28 and 0.31, respectively, whereas T2 (sand 100 %) had seedlings with the poorest quality. Consequently, T8 can be adopted by nursery producers as an alternative to peat moss in the production of quality tomato transplants. More research on other locally available organic substrates is encouraged to find out alternatives to expensive media like peat moss because it was observed that the use of sand + goat manure + carbonised rice husk 50 %: 10 %: 40 % revealed in production of quality seedlings with no significant difference from the ones grown in peat moss. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:51:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1409a6d2316f4243a34cdb854bcef433 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1801-0571 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:51:05Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica |
| spelling | doaj.art-1409a6d2316f4243a34cdb854bcef4332023-05-29T10:54:40ZengSciendoAgricultura Tropica et Subtropica1801-05712022-01-0155120221310.2478/ats-2022-0021Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation mediumNkurunziza Ephrem0Nyalala Samuel1Umuhoza Karemera Noëlla Josiane2Department of Crops, Horticulture and Soils, Faculty of Agriculture, Egerton University, Njoro, KenyaDepartment of Crops, Horticulture and Soils, Faculty of Agriculture, Egerton University, Njoro, KenyaDepartment of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, RwandaTomato is an important horticultural crop as it provides income and contributes to food security for Rwandan citizens. Besides its importance, its production is hampered by the use of a soil-based growing medium which results in the production of low-quality transplants. This is mainly attributed to the unaffordability of peat moss to small-scale farmers in Rwanda. Hence, a greenhouse nursery experiment was carried out at the Rwanda-Israel Horticulture Centre of Excellence to search for an alternative growing medium to peat moss. Nine different growing media were formulated from a mixture at different ratios of sand, goat manure, and carbonised rice husks. The seeds were sown in propagation trays. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and means were separated using Tukey’s honestly significant difference test at p ≤ 0.05. The data analysis was carried out using SAS software version 9.2. The results revealed that sand + goat manure + carbonised rice husk 50 %: 10 %: 40 % (T8) was comparable to T1 (peat moss 100 %) in producing higher quality seedlings during both trials with a mean quality index of 0.28 and 0.31, respectively, whereas T2 (sand 100 %) had seedlings with the poorest quality. Consequently, T8 can be adopted by nursery producers as an alternative to peat moss in the production of quality tomato transplants. More research on other locally available organic substrates is encouraged to find out alternatives to expensive media like peat moss because it was observed that the use of sand + goat manure + carbonised rice husk 50 %: 10 %: 40 % revealed in production of quality seedlings with no significant difference from the ones grown in peat moss.https://doi.org/10.2478/ats-2022-0021top soilspeat mossgrowing mediumcarbonisationnurserytomatosowingseedling emergencegrowthtransplantsseedling qualitydickson quality index |
| spellingShingle | Nkurunziza Ephrem Nyalala Samuel Umuhoza Karemera Noëlla Josiane Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica top soils peat moss growing medium carbonisation nursery tomato sowing seedling emergence growth transplants seedling quality dickson quality index |
| title | Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| title_full | Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| title_fullStr | Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| title_short | Sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| title_sort | sand amended with carbonised rice husk and goat manure as a propagation medium |
| topic | top soils peat moss growing medium carbonisation nursery tomato sowing seedling emergence growth transplants seedling quality dickson quality index |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/ats-2022-0021 |
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