Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates
The degradation of soil quality due to environmental conditions and improper management practices has caused a shrinkage in land areas suitable for crop cultivation. This necessitates a transition towards soilless culture systems, which offer desirable conditions for crop growth and development and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Plants |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/1/44 |
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| author | Muein Qaryouti Mohamed Osman Abdulaziz Alharbi Wim Voogt Mohamed Ewis Abdelaziz |
| author_facet | Muein Qaryouti Mohamed Osman Abdulaziz Alharbi Wim Voogt Mohamed Ewis Abdelaziz |
| author_sort | Muein Qaryouti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The degradation of soil quality due to environmental conditions and improper management practices has caused a shrinkage in land areas suitable for crop cultivation. This necessitates a transition towards soilless culture systems, which offer desirable conditions for crop growth and development and increase resource use efficiency. One of the growth-limiting factors in soilless culture systems is the type of growing substrate. The use of more sustainable resources and environmentally friendly growing substrates is a challenge that affects the soilless culture industry. This work evaluates the efficacy of date palm waste (DPW) and rockwool as growing substrates for sweet pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) under greenhouse conditions. The plant height, stem diameter, average total leaf area, φPSII, and Fm′ of leaf fluorescence show significant increases when plants are grown in rockwool. No differences are found in terms of the total yield or the number of marketable fruits and fruit quality between the two substrates. However, the DPW substrate shows a significant decrease in the number of unmarketable fruits and number of Blossom End Rot (BER) fruits. Plants grown in both growing substrates consume equal water amounts for the optimal fruit production, while the water use efficiency of rockwool is better than that of DPW. Our results highlight DPW’s role in soilless production and as a key solution for resource-saving production systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T14:59:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d3cbb4a2a5d44794baf7c85fd8dd5637 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2223-7747 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T14:59:46Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Plants |
| spelling | doaj.art-d3cbb4a2a5d44794baf7c85fd8dd56372024-01-10T15:06:03ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472023-12-011314410.3390/plants13010044Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture SubstratesMuein Qaryouti0Mohamed Osman1Abdulaziz Alharbi2Wim Voogt3Mohamed Ewis Abdelaziz4The National Research and Development Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Estidamah), Riyadh Techno Valley, Riyadh 11422, Saudi ArabiaPlant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi ArabiaPlant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi ArabiaBusiness Unit Greenhouse Horticulture, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsThe National Research and Development Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Estidamah), Riyadh Techno Valley, Riyadh 11422, Saudi ArabiaThe degradation of soil quality due to environmental conditions and improper management practices has caused a shrinkage in land areas suitable for crop cultivation. This necessitates a transition towards soilless culture systems, which offer desirable conditions for crop growth and development and increase resource use efficiency. One of the growth-limiting factors in soilless culture systems is the type of growing substrate. The use of more sustainable resources and environmentally friendly growing substrates is a challenge that affects the soilless culture industry. This work evaluates the efficacy of date palm waste (DPW) and rockwool as growing substrates for sweet pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) under greenhouse conditions. The plant height, stem diameter, average total leaf area, φPSII, and Fm′ of leaf fluorescence show significant increases when plants are grown in rockwool. No differences are found in terms of the total yield or the number of marketable fruits and fruit quality between the two substrates. However, the DPW substrate shows a significant decrease in the number of unmarketable fruits and number of Blossom End Rot (BER) fruits. Plants grown in both growing substrates consume equal water amounts for the optimal fruit production, while the water use efficiency of rockwool is better than that of DPW. Our results highlight DPW’s role in soilless production and as a key solution for resource-saving production systems.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/1/44<i>Capsicum annum</i>greenhousesoilless culturewater use efficiency |
| spellingShingle | Muein Qaryouti Mohamed Osman Abdulaziz Alharbi Wim Voogt Mohamed Ewis Abdelaziz Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates Plants <i>Capsicum annum</i> greenhouse soilless culture water use efficiency |
| title | Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates |
| title_full | Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates |
| title_fullStr | Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates |
| title_short | Using Date Palm Waste as an Alternative for Rockwool: Sweet Pepper Performance under Both Soilless Culture Substrates |
| title_sort | using date palm waste as an alternative for rockwool sweet pepper performance under both soilless culture substrates |
| topic | <i>Capsicum annum</i> greenhouse soilless culture water use efficiency |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/1/44 |
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