The Role of Trichoderma viride in Valorization of Date Palm Fiber Wastes as an Alternative Growing Media to Coco Peat for Cucumber Seedlings Production | ||
| Egyptian Journal of Soil Science | ||
| Volume 65, Issue 3, September 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejss.2025.417949.2334 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Hussain Almousa1; Yousry Bayoumi* 2; Tarek A. Shalaby3; Naglaa Taha4; Hossam El-Beltagi5; Hassan Elramady6 | ||
| 1Department of Arid Land Agriculture, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia. | ||
| 2Horticulture Dept., Fac of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University | ||
| 3Arid-land Agriculture Department, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, KSA | ||
| 4Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza 12619, Egypt | ||
| 5Department of Biotechnology, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia | ||
| 6Kafrelshiekh University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Production of vegetable seedlings is considered one of the most important factors control the success cultivation of vegetables worldwide. Seedlings stage is a crucial period in vegetables growing, ensuring high productivity. The growing media of seedling is a vital component of seedlings production cost, especially the coco peat. In the current study, date palm fiber (DPF) waste was evaluated to be an alternative growing substrate to coco peat to reduce the cost of seedlings production. Along with this general aim, Trichoderma viride was also investigated in valorization of DPF as an alternative growing media to coco peat in cucumber seedlings production. DPF media was mixed with vermiculite (VC) at different ratios (i.e., 75:25, 50:50, and 25:75) compared to the control. These mixtures were enriched with and/or without T. viride to make eight treatments which included: control (coco peat and vermiculite 1:1), 75 % DPF + 25 % VC, 50 % DPF + 50 % VC, and 25 % DPF + 75 % VC in presence or absent of T. viride for all mixtures. The findings reveal the efficiency of using DPF media in the germination and growth of cucumber seedlings. There are no significant differences due to all DPF mixtures on both total germination rate and germination index in comparing to commercial growing media (control) in presence or absent of T. viride. The best seedlings quality traits were resulted by all DPF mixtures including root length, stem diameter, chlorophyll content, while coco peat media recorded the tallest seedlings and biggest leaf area. T. viride application increased the quality of growing media and showed the highest percentage of survival rate and lowest disease severity percentage of damping off caused by Rhizoctonia spp. Also, different DPF mixtures with VC showed the lowest cost of growing media compared to commercial media which had the highest costs. The application of T. viride promoted the growth of cucumber seedling roots and increased the bioavailability of different nutrients in rhizosphere of growing media along with the uptake by roots. Further research is needed to be applied to other different vegetable seedlings as well. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Agro-wastes; Chlorophyll content; Seedling traits; Media cots; Photosynthesis efficiency; Rhizoctonia spp | ||
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