Cultivation of plants in soilless medium has an increasing trend. A soilless medium, in addition to having suitable characteristics, should be available, cheap, sustainable, light, and affordable. The purpose of this applicable research is to produce solopeat from rice factories' wastes and evaluate and improve its characteristics. During the solopeat production process, the raw material was made into a pyramid shape and to accelerate biological reactions, Trichoderma family fungi and effective micro-organisms (EM) were added to it and covered with plastic. Irrigation and aeration of the mass were carried out regularly and after four months, primary evaluation including germination test along with seedling growth, microbial respiration, solopeat color, pH, and EC were carried out and macro & micronutrients were determined in it. Then, produced solopeat without additives and with ratios of 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 of perlite, mixed and in terms of apparent specific gravity, water holding capacity, and hydraulic conductivity compared with most common soilless culture medium (cocopeat-perlite 3:1) . Then, to improve the characteristics of the solopeat, zeolite and bentonite clay, were added to it. Results approved that there is no significant differences between cocopeat-perlite (3:1) and pure solopeat in terms of chemical properties. Variance analyzing results approved that medium, amendment clay, clay levels, and these three factors' interaction effects have a significant effect on apparent specific gravity, water holding capacity, and hydraulic conductivity. Also, the interaction between the type of culture medium and the type of amendment had a significant effect on apparent specific gravity, water holding capacity, and hydraulic conductivity. The effect of culture medium and clay levels interaction on all measured characteristics was significant. Also, interaction between, clay type and its levels had a significant effect on all characteristics. The interaction of culture medium, clay amendment, and clay levels on apparent specific gravity, water holding capacity, and hydraulic conductivity was significant. Adding bentonite clay to solopeat-perlite had a greater effect on improving the characteristics of solopeat compared to zeolite. The result is that it is possible to produce solopeat from rice factories' wastages. |
