Can Compost Be an Alternative to Germination Media for Growing Lettuce Seedlings in Nurseries? | ||||
| Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||||
| Volume 56, Issue 3, July 2025, Page 267-282 PDF (779.92 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Research papers | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ajas.2025.320841.1406 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
Khaled A. Farghly  1; Mohamed M.M. Ahmed 2; Mamdouh A. Eissa 1; Reham M. Abdalla3; Hala H. Gomah1
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| 1Department of Soils and Water, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt. | ||||
| 2Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt. | ||||
| 3Vegetables Crops Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Four types of plant compost, peanut shells (PS), palm waste (PW), sorghum waste (SW), and banana waste (BW) were examined as growing media after mixing each of them with cork (C), perlite (P), or sand (S) in a ratio of 2:1 (V:V), compared to the control mixture (peatmoss: perlite) of the same ratio. All three mixtures of PS and the mixture of PW+P competed well with the control in all studied growth parameters due to their optimum characterization. Mixing the tested composts with P always gave the best results. After 14 days of seeding, the highest germination percentages of lettuce seeds were in control (98.34%), PW+P (98.16%), PS+C (97.83%), and PS+P (96.36%), whereas the lowest was in BW+S (2.77%). Banana waste compost mixtures showed a clear delay of 8 days in germination due to their high EC (9.54 dS/m) and high pH values (8.58). The highest significant value of shoot fresh weight was achieved in all PS compost mixtures in addition to PW+P. Total cost and net profit were calculated in peatmoss and perlite without including banana waste compost in the comparison. The highest net profit was obtained with PS compost mixes (PS+C, PS+P, and PS+S) with a net profit of $2.6, $2.4, and $2.1, respectively, followed by palm waste compost mixes (PW+C, PW+P, and PW+S) with a net profit of $2.06, $2.04, and $2.1, respectively. The physicochemical characteristics of the peanut shell and palm waste compost mixtures suggests it could be an economical germination media replacement for peatmoss. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Compost Palm waste; Compost Peanut shell; Compost Sorghum waste; Compost Banana waste; Inorganic Germination media cork perlite and sand | ||||
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