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.

Background and purpose: The area under olive cultivation in Iran, is reported to be about 60,000 hectares. One of the main problems of olive propagation with cuttings is that the cuttings are difficult to root. The type of substrate, humidity, depth, drainage, temperature, cutting time, cutting quality, treatment of cuttings before or after cutting with regulators and the optimal concentration of these regulators are among the most important factors that are interest to researchers to increase rooting. Considering the economic value of olive seedling production from cutting, identification of culture media and methods of improvement of rooting percentage are economically important. Due to the low rooting percentage and the slow speed of the rooting process of olive cuttings, rooting hormones are usually used for the propagation of this product. This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of using organic liquid fertilizer (Vermiwash) on the rooting of olive cuttings in five types of culture media.Materials and methods: This research was conducted by comparing five types of single and integrated culture media including: river sand, perlite, solopeat, river sand + perlite & river sand + solopeat & rooting stimulating treatments including: irrigation water (as a control), organic liquid fertilizer (vermiwash) and indole butyric acid (IBA) in a factorial experiment in the form of a completely randomized design with three replications in greenhouse conditions on the percentage of rooting and growth of the cuttings of the yellow olive variety in the Tarom city, Zanjan. Moreover, as an innovative and technological product, effect of vermiwash on rooting was investigated and compared with IBA imported from Merck Company, Germany.Result: Results showed that the highest percentage of rooting and growth of rooted cuttings were obtained in integrated culture media (sand + perlite & sand + solopeat) compared to single culture media (sand, perlite, solopeat). Furthermore, among the single cultivation substrates, lowest percentage of rooting and growth of cuttings was obtained in sand. The highest content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the leaves of the rooted cuttings was obtained in integrated culture media. Mostly, the highest percentage of rooting, the maximum of root growth in rooted cuttings, as well as, maximum amount of nutrients in leaves of the cuttings were obtained in the mediums treated with vermiwash, but in most cases, there was no significant differences between vermiwash and IBA. Conclusion: It is recommended to use integrated culture media including: sand + perlite or sand + solopeat for the rooting of Yellow olive variety cuttings by applying fertigation treatment with organic liquid fertilizer (vermiwash) instead of IBA hormone.