Different culture media have various materials that impact root system architecture (RSA) and root system quality in plants. Finding the most compatible RSA of cucumber seedlings among the eight mixed culture media is critical to plant productivity. In this experiment, cucumber seeds were sown in eight mixed culture media, including a volume ratio of 30:10:60 of 1- perlite-vermicompost-coco peat as the control group, 2- peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat, 3- cocopeat vermicompost-palm peat, 4- perlite-vermicompost-palm peat, and 30:70 ratios of 5- peat moss- palm peat, 6- cocopeat -palm peat, 7- perlite -palm peat and 8- vermicompost-palm peat under greenhouse conditions. RSA of the seedlings was evaluated by GiA-Roots software via imaging at the fourleaf stage. The results showed that the minimum network length, network area, and network perimeter (821.6 cm, 7598.3 cm2, and 2102.3 cm, respectively) in the seedlings occurred on perlite-vermicompost-coco peat (control) which lacked palm peat. The minimum network volume, number of connected components, and network depth were observed in the control. However, the maximum network length, network volume, number of connected components, network width, network area, and network perimeter (88862.8 cm, 2076390.9 cm3, 23.2, 4567.4 cm, 332356.1 cm2, and 132068.9 cm, respectively) occurred in seedlings on peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat (30:10:60). Thus, a culture medium containing 30% peat moss, 60% palm peat, and 10% vermicompost improved RSA in cucumber seedlings. Palm peat was recommended as a sustainable resource to comprise culture media for cucumber seedlings.

Various culture media contain a variety of materials that affect plant growth and development. Finding the best media culture among the various materials is thus critical to plant productivity. This study was conducted based on a completely randomized design using eight treatments and three replications. The treatments included the ratios 30: 10: 60 of perlite-vermicompost-coco peat, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat, coco peat-vermicompost-palm peat, perlite-vermicompost-palm peat, and the ratios 30: 70 of peat moss-palm peat, coco peat-palm peat, perlite-palm peat, and vermicompost-palm peat. Cucumber seeds were planted in pots containing these culture media under greenhouse conditions. After the four-leaf stage, the morpho-physiological responses of the seedlings were evaluated. According to the findings, when compared to perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat increased shoot fresh weight by 5. 5-fold, root fresh weight by 4. 5-fold, root dry weight by 5. 8-fold, shoot dry weight by 7-fold, stem diameter by 1. 7-fold, shoot length by 2. 3-fold, root length by 1. 3-fold, and leaf area by 3. 8-fold. However, compared to seedlings grown in peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat medium, the amount of auxin and reactive oxygen species decreased while total soluble sugars and peroxidase increased in perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium. Our findings indicate that the composition of peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat can be used as a beneficial medium to improve quality of cucumber seedling under greenhouse conditions.

In spite of being the main commercial substrate in the world, peat moss is not so economic for grower to use because of its high cost. The purpose of this study was to investigate the substitution of peat moss with some organic wastes as growing media. The study was conducted on pathos in college of Agriculture, Tehran University. A factorial experiment was arranged using a completely randomized design with 6 replications. During this experiment the effects of 4 organic media including: peat moss, coca peat, palm peat and baggasse with two level of perlite (0 and 50%) on pothos growth were investigated. The highest values of leaf area, leaf number, offset number, shoot and root fresh and dry weights and shoot length were observed in coca peat and the lowest values of measured growth indices were obtained in baggasse. Peat moss and palm peat showed similar effects on most growing indices. Coco peat and palm peat were similar in some of their characteristics such as CEC, pH, bulk density and total porosity but different in water holding capacity which was higher in coco peat than the other. If this characteristic of palm peat be improved, it would be a good substitute for peat moss in future. The results showed that baggasse was not a proper organic media. Coco peat despite of having best result on plant growth rate is not recommended because it is an imported media and is not so economic. The results of adding perlite to media were different according to the type of media.

In order to determine the effect of different substrates on the yield and quality of three pepper cultivars in a pot and tube culture, an investigation was conducted in a greenhouse in Sarkhoon, Bandar-Abbas in 2010. Different substrates including palm waste (100%), peat (100%), palm waste+peat (50: 50 V/V), palm waste+peat (25: 75 V/V) and waste palm+peat (75: 25 V/V) and three cultivars of Rapido (yellow), Roxcy (red) and California wonder (green) were used in a completely randomized experimental design as a factorial experiment with three replications. The results showed that the highest fruit weight, length, diameter and volume, fruit dry matter, total acidity, carotenoids, soluble solids and pH was achieved from Roxcy cultivar, while the highest plant height was related to the Rapido cultivar. None of the traits, except plant height, leaf and root dry matter and total phenol content, were influenced by the substrates. According to the obtained results, palm waste is recommended as a complete or partial substitution for peat substrate in soilless culture.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of some media (vermicompost, peat and coco-peat) on the growth and flowering quality of carnation flower, based on completely randomized design with 10 treatments and 8 replications in Sarein's Municipal research greenhouse in 2010. Various levels (20, 40 and 60 percentages) of each these materials were used in this experiment as experimental treatments. Leaf number, plants height, shoots and flower diameter were studied. Plants treated with 60% vermicomoost were died, hence, neglected in statical analysis. Also, results has shown that vermicompost treatments had unfavorable effect on all of experimental criteria, which at 20 and 40% significantly decreased leaf number, plant height, shoot and flower diameter. Coco-peat at 20% enhanced leaf number and plants height, but at 40 and 60% decreased leaf number, plants height, shoot and flower diameter. But this compound at 20% increased shoot and flower diameter significantly (P<0.05). Peat treatments increased leaf number, final leaf number in peat treatment were either more or equivalent to control, But there was no significant difference between peat treatments and control. Peat at 60% in comparison to 20 and 40%, increased shoot diameter. In case of flower diameter, biggest flower devoted to peat 20% in first stages of flowering time, but the biggest final size of flower observed in peat 40% treatment. Hoewer, in this experiment, coco-peat at 20% and peat at 20% had positive effects on growth and development of carnation compaired to control and other treatnents.

Purpose Peat-based substrates constitute the preferred media in conventional and organic nursery production. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in environmental impacts associated with peat extraction that has increasedwith the demand of these non-renewable substrates. The re-use of organic wastes as substrate seems to be good solutionto substitute commercial peat. This study evaluates date-palm peat (wastes of date-palm branches base locally known as“ Kornef” ) as an alternative nursery substrate. Methods The research was conducted in a completely block randomized design with a linear substitution (0, 25, 50, 75 and100%) of peat with date-palm waste peat for transplant production of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. ). Different physicochemicalparameters (porosity, bulk density, pH, and CEC) of cultivation substrates were measured. The growth parameters (leavesnumber, leaves area, length, chlorophyll values, fresh and dry weight of seedlings) were evaluated at the end of growth period(when the seedling reached the commercial transplanting size). Results The results showed that date-palm waste peat is an appropriate media for nursery production, showing similarproperties with commercial peat and best plant response with 25 and 50% substitution. Conclusions In view of low cost, availability and large area of date-palm cultivation in Tunisia and over the world, it seemsthat peat can be replaced with substrate of date-palm wastes in the horticulture sector.

This experiment was designed to characterize the effects of size and concentration of an Iranian clinoptilolite zeolite on the growth ofFicus benjamina (starlight) in peat base media.Ficus benjamina was stock rooted and grown in a peat consisting perlite (2: 1 v/v) (P: Pe), zeolite (10, 20, 30 and 40 v/v %, two sizes 0.5-3 mm and 3-8 mm) instead of peat in P: Pe (2: 1 v/v) media.Ficus benjaminawas grown in the substituted media for 10 month under fiberglass cover greenhouse, with 4 pots for each treatment. The control consisted of P: Pe alone without zeolite. The results showed that the substitution of 10-30 v/v % zeolites in control did not result in significant difference (p  £ 0.05) in shoot and leaf fresh weight, shoot and leaf dry weight, shoot dry weight, leaf dry weight in comparison to control. Instead, substitution of 10-40 v/v % zeolites instead of peat significantly increased media electrical conductivity (EC). There were no positive correlations betweenFicus benjamina growth and the amounts of mineral-N in potting mixtures or concentration of nitrogen in leaves of plant. Zeolite particle size significantly increased the pH in comparison with the control. With Regard to the high relative price of peat with respect to natural zeolite, zeolite substitution in an amount of 10-30 vol. % is economically preferred.

2Abstract Tomato is one of the most important crops, which is cultivated as seedlings. It is important to choose an economic and favorable cultivation medium for the production of good seedlings. In order to use the compost produced from palm pruning wastes as a substrate for the production of tomato seedlings, an experiment was carried out in the greenhouse conditions as completely randomized design with three replications in 2019-2018 at the research greenhouse of Soil and Water Research Institute. Five cultivation beds as treatments included: 1) compost produced from palm pruning wastes (palm peat) (PP), 2) peat moss (PM), 3) cocopeat (CP), 4) mixture of palm peat and peat moss (PP+PM), and 5) mixture of cocopeat and peat moss (CP+PM). Some plant indices, the concentration of plant nutrients and plant growth indicators were measured at the end of the growth period. The results showed that the highest amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (1.47% nitrogen, 0.18% phosphorus and 2.83% potassium) were observed in PM, CP and PP+PM treatments, respectively, which were significantly (p<0.01) different from other treatments. In terms of tomato seedling height, the best treatment was PM (8.34 cm), and PP (7.56 cm) and PP+PM (7.56 cm) were ranked second. The lowest seedling height was recorded in CP (5.37 cm). The highest and lowest values of root length were related to PP+PM (8.69 cm) and CP (6.62 cm), respectively, that were significantly (p<0.01) different. The economic results evaluation showed that palm peat is 50% cheaper than cocopeat and 100% cheaper than peat moss, and it can be used as a substitute for imported cocopeat and peat moss in tomato seedling cultivation. Background and Objective: Tomato is one of the most important agricultural crops and has the second rank among vegetables in the country, with a cultivated area of over 131,000 hectares (1). At present, tomato seedling cultivation and preparation of seedlings are the most important stages of production. Providing materials and high cost of cultivation bed are among the most important problems of seedling production in soilless cultivation (2). Currently, the materials used for the soilless cultivation are peat moss and cocopeat, both of which are imported, and besides increasing the cost of transplanting production, it also causes export problems. In this study, compost (peat) prepared from the pruned palm leaves was used as a seedling growing substrate and compared with other common cultivation beds. This is effective not only in reducing the cost of tomato seedling production, but also in the optimal use of palm tree pruning wastes, and would create income for palm tree farmers and cultivation bed producers. The purpose of this research was to compare the cultivation medium produced from the wastes of palm leaves and petioles (palm peat) with imported cocopeat and peat moss, and to investigate its quantitative and qualitative effect on the growth indicators of tomato seedlings. Methods: The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications in a controlled environment in the research greenhouse of Soil and Water Research Institute in 2019. Chemical properties such as pH, salinity, the amounts of ammonium and nitrate, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and soluble sodium, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon content and micronutrients (copper, zinc, iron and manganese) were determined in the soil and plant samples. Five planting cultivation beds as treatments included: 1) compost produced from palm pruning wastes (palm peat) (PP), 2) peat moss (PM), 3) cocopeat (CP), 4) mixture of palm peat and peat moss (PP+PM), and 5) mixture of cocopeat and peat moss (CP+PM). Some plant indices, the concentration of plant nutrients and plant growth indicators were measured at the end of the growth period. Results: The highest salinity was related to PM which was within the optimal range of salinity (i.e., 0.5–3 dS/m) provided by Gilmar and Betina (3). The pH value in the saturated extract was within the optimal range (5.5–6.5) for PM and CP and was more than optimal in PP. The results showed that the highest amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (1.47% nitrogen, 0.18% phosphorus and 2.83% potassium) were observed in PM, CP and PP+PM treatments, respectively, which were significantly (p<0.01) different from other treatments. The mean comparison of the chemical properties and nutritional elements of the cultivated substrates showed that T1 was richer in nutrients than PM or CP. The highest seedling height related to PM and PP was in the second rank. The highest stem fresh weight belonged to PP+PM, and PP ranked second. Palm peat treatment (PP) resulted in the highest concentrations of copper, zinc and iron in the whole plant. Conclusions: Seedling growth in peat moss compared to palm peat showed the suitability of chemical conditions including pH and nutrients in peat moss for optimal seedling growth. Despite the appropriate physical conditions and pH, cocopeat could not produce a good rating of growth due to the lower content of nutrients. Palm peat has a favorable potential in production of tomato seedlings, and due to its availability and low-cost production, it can be replaced instead of expensive peat moss and imported cocopeat. References: 1. Agricultural Statistics, 2018. Volume Three: Horticultural Products. Information and Communication Technology Center, Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, Tehran, Iran, 207 p. 2. Basirat, M., 2011. Use of palm waste cellulose as a substitute for common growing media in aglonema growing. Journal of Horticultural Plants 1(1): 1–11. 3. Gilmar, S., Betina, L., 2022. Physical and chemical characteristics and analysis of plant substrate. Ornamental Horticulture 28: 249–260.

Different substrates have several materials which could have direct and/or indirect effects on plant growth and development. The use of different organic and inorganic substrates allows that plants have best nutrient uptake and sufficient growth and development to optimize water and oxygen holding. This work was carried out using a completely randomized design with six treatments and six replications. The treatments were pure palm peat, pure rice hull, soil+5% (weight) palm peat, soil+5% (weight) rice hull, soil+5% (weight) palm peat+5% (weight) rice hull and pure soil. During plant growth Papadopolus formula with fertigation method was used for nutrient solution.Selected physiochemical properties of culture media and selected growth indices of plants were measured at the end of growth period. Results showed that amount of porosity, water holding capacity (WHC) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) in date-palm peat was higher than soil and rice hull but amount of bulk density in date-Palm peat was lower than the others. Also The results showed that many growth parameters were affected by the culture media. Most amount of yield and plant height in each was related to palm waste (100%) and had significant difference at 5% level as compared with the others. Results showed that plant growing indices for cucumber plant were sufficient when cultured only in date Palm waste and rice hull substrates and when this materials were added to the soil, although it amended physiochemical properties of media but decreased the plant growing indices.

In order to evaluate the possibility use of palm waste cellulose as a substitute substrate for growing pot plants, an experiment was conducted in completely randomized block design with 6 replication and six treatments on Aglaonema sp. The treatments were 5 levels including 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 palm celluloid wastes mixed with different rates of some amendments such as peat, coconut coir, perlite, vermiculite, rice husk and sugarcane waste compost. The trial was conducted in a research greenhouse at certain environmental condition during 14 month. Before experiment, the chemical and physical properties of organic substrates were measured. To determine superior media the vegetative indexes were measured and data statistically analyzed. Results showed that the palm celluloid wastes had significant impact on the growth and total dry weight of plants that grown in mixing media in comparison with peat and peat- perlite potting media. Also peat and coir had not significant differences in most growth indices but palm celluloid wastes had greater increase in plant dry weight if it used as a 50-50 v/v percent mixing amendment in all treatments. Data indicated that palm celluloid wastes can be used as a media individually, and also as an amendment for other media such as sugarcane compost.