Abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of solarization of spent potting media and the addition of organic amendments on bedding plants production in southern Florida. Spent potting media in clear, 0.1-mm-thick polyethylene plastic bags were solarized for 0, 2 or 4 weeks. Solarized media were compared to new potting media. In addition, each treatment was compared to humic acid treated media that were arranged in a completely randomized experimental design with eight replications. Impatiens, periwinkle and petunia were grown in each of these treatments and evaluated for their horticultural parameters 9 weeks after transplanting. Solarization of spent media for 2 or 4 weeks increased plant height, width, plant dry weight, and flower number per plant compared with those grown in non-solarized media, irrespective of the organic amendment. Solarization for 2 or 4 weeks doubled the values of the horticultural parameters in impatiens and periwinkle plants compared with those grown new or non-solarized media. All horticultural parameters values of petunia plants that were grown in solarized media for 2 or 4 weeks and received humic acid were comparable with those grown in new media. The addition of humic acid significantly increased petunia plant width, dry weight, and number of flowers in 2 or 4 weeks solarized media and the latter two parameters in new media. Solarization of recycled media for 2 or 4 weeks in plastic bags has a high potential to be considered as a useful soil disinfectant, and is an inexpensive, fast, and effective technique for recycling stockpiled disease-infected media and providing horticultural parameter values for impatiens and petunia comparable with plants grown in new potting media. Combining solarization and humic acid for petunia can attain even higher horticultural values. The use of this solarization technique as an environmentally safe media disin fectant with organic amendments offers an additional option for increasing pest control and crop yield of bedding plants, an opportunity to reduce input to landfills, and has a great potential to be adopted by nursery growers and homeowners.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Two or four weeks of media solarization increased impatiens height, width, dry weight, and flower number relative to non-solarized media.
- Treatment
- Solarization of spent media for 2 or 4 weekse0
- Outcome
- plant height, width, plant dry weighte0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- non-solarized mediae0
ImpatiensOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Solarization of spent media for 2 or 4 weeks increased plant height, width, plant dry weight, and flower number per plant compared with those grown in non-solarized media, irrespective of the organic amendment.”
t0“Impatiens, periwinkle and petunia were grown”
Claim · model-written summary
Solarization increased impatiens flower number relative to non-solarized media.
- Treatment
- Solarization of spent media for 2 or 4 weekse0
- Outcome
- flower number per plante0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- non-solarized mediae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Solarization of spent media for 2 or 4 weeks increased plant height, width, plant dry weight, and flower number per plant compared with those grown in non-solarized media, irrespective of the organic amendment.”
t0“Impatiens, periwinkle and petunia were grown”
Claim · model-written summary
Two or four weeks of solarization doubled impatiens horticultural parameters relative to new or non-solarized media.
- Treatment
- Solarization for 2 or 4 weekse0
- Outcome
- horticultural parameterse0
- Direction
- doublede0
- Comparator
- new or non-solarized mediae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Solarization for 2 or 4 weeks doubled the values of the horticultural parameters in impatiens and periwinkle plants compared with those grown new or non-solarized media.”
Claim · model-written summary
Two or four weeks of solarization doubled periwinkle horticultural parameters relative to new or non-solarized media.
Verbatim
e0“Solarization for 2 or 4 weeks doubled the values of the horticultural parameters in impatiens and periwinkle plants compared with those grown new or non-solarized media.”
Claim · model-written summary
Petunia in solarized media with humic acid had horticultural parameters comparable to new media.
- Treatment
- solarized media for 2 or 4 weeks and received humic acide0
- Outcome
- horticultural parameterse0
- Direction
- comparablee0
- Comparator
- new mediae0
_flowers_in_Westgate_Gardens%2C_Canterbury.jpg?width=60){kind=small}
PetuniaOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_flowers_in_Westgate_Gardens%2C_Canterbury.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“All horticultural parameters values of petunia plants that were grown in solarized media for 2 or 4 weeks and received humic acid were comparable with those grown in new media.”
Claim · model-written summary
Humic acid significantly increased petunia width, dry weight, and flower number in solarized media.
- Treatment
- humic acide0
- Outcome
- petunia plant width, dry weight, and number of flowerse0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- 2 or 4 weeks solarized mediae0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The addition of humic acid significantly increased petunia plant width, dry weight, and number of flowers in 2 or 4 weeks solarized media”
Claim · model-written summary
Humic acid significantly increased petunia dry weight and flower number in new media.
- Treatment
- humic acidt1
- Outcome
- dry weight, and number of flowerst1
- Direction
- increasedt1
- Qualifier
- new mediae0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the latter two parameters in new media.”
t0“petunia plants that were grown”
t1“humic acid significantly increased petunia plant width, dry weight, and number of flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend bag solarization of recycled media for bedding plant production.
- Outcome
- Solarization of recycled media for 2 or 4 weeks in plastic bagse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Solarization of recycled media for 2 or 4 weeks in plastic bags has a high potential to be considered as a useful soil disinfectant, and is an inexpensive, fast, and effective technique for recycling stockpiled disease-infected media and providing horticultural parameter values for impatiens and petunia comparable with plants grown in new potting media.”
The same questions in other papers
in vitro · growth · ImpatiensPositive and negative results
1 paper in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- no effect
- positive
solarization · growth · ImpatiensResults agree
2 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
other · yield · Petunia (petunia)Results agree
3 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.