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      Comparison of Coconut Coir, Rockwool, and Peat Cultivations for Tomato Production: Nutrient Balance, Plant Growth and Fruit Quality

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          Abstract

          Rockwool (RC) and peat are two common substrates used worldwide in horticultural crop production. In recent years environmental and ecological concerns raised the demand for reducing the use of RC and peat. Although coconut coir (CC) has been increasingly used as an alternative to RC and peat, it is still needed to comprehensively evaluate the feasibility of CC before widely used. To meet this need, CC, RC, and peat-vermiculite (PVC) cultivations were used as tomato cultivation substrates to evaluate their effects on EC, pH and mineral ions in root-zone solution and drainage, nutrient uptake by crops, nutrient balance of cultivation system, plant growth and fruit quality. In general, CC significantly increased K and S uptake by crops, photosynthesis, individual fruit weight and total fruit yield compared to RC, and increased P and K uptake by crops and total fruit yield compared to PVC. Moreover, CC significantly increased organic acid of fruit in first truss compared to both RC and PVC. The uncredited nutrient was overally lower under CC than under RC and PVC (the lower, the better). For all substrates, the blossom-end rot (BER) of fruit increased gradually from 3rd to 13th trusses. The BER of fruit was not significantly influenced by CC compared to RC or PVC, but was sginificantly decreased by PVC compared to RC. Our results infer that CC was a potential substrate that could be widely used in tomato production. However, the inhibition of BER was still a challenge when CC was used as cultivation substrate for tomato.

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          Achieving environmentally sustainable growing media for soilless plant cultivation systems – A review

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            Innovative methods in soil phosphorus research: A review

            Phosphorus (P) is an indispensable element for all life on Earth and, during the past decade, concerns about the future of its global supply have stimulated much research on soil P and method development. This review provides an overview of advanced state-of-the-art methods currently used in soil P research. These involve bulk and spatially resolved spectroscopic and spectrometric P speciation methods (1 and 2D NMR, IR, Raman, Q-TOF MS/MS, high resolution-MS, NanoSIMS, XRF, XPS, (µ)XAS) as well as methods for assessing soil P reactions (sorption isotherms, quantum-chemical modeling, microbial biomass P, enzymes activity, DGT, 33P isotopic exchange, 18O isotope ratios). Required experimental set-ups and the potentials and limitations of individual methods present a guide for the selection of most suitable methods or combinations.
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              Physico-chemical and chemical properties of some coconut coir dusts for use as a peat substitute for containerised ornamental plants.

              Selected physico-chemical and chemical characteristics of 13 coconut coir dust (mesocarp pithy tissue plus short-length fibres) samples from Asia, America and Africa were evaluated as peat alternatives. All properties studied differed significantly between and within sources, and from the control Sphagnum peat. pH of coir dust was slightly acidic, whereas salinity varied dramatically between 39 and 597 mS m(-1) in the saturated media extract. The cation exchange capacity and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio ranged from 31.7 to 95.4 cmol(c) kg(-1) and from 75 to 186, respectively. Most carbon was found as lignin and cellulose. The concentrations of available nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and micro-elements were low, while those of phosphorus and potassium were remarkably high (0.28-2.81 mol m(-3) and 2.97-52.66 mol m(-3) for P and K, respectively). Saline ion concentrations, especially chloride and sodium, were also high.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Plant Sci
                Front Plant Sci
                Front. Plant Sci.
                Frontiers in Plant Science
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-462X
                02 August 2017
                2017
                : 8
                : 1327
                Affiliations
                [1] 1College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University Beijing, China
                [2] 2Vegetable Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences Beijing, China
                [3] 3College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University Beijing, China
                Author notes

                Edited by: Stefania De Pascale, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

                Reviewed by: Paolo Sambo, University of Padua, Italy; Georgia Ntatsi, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece

                *Correspondence: Wei Liu, liuwei@ 123456nercv.org Qing Chen, qchen@ 123456cau.edu.cn

                This article was submitted to Crop Science and Horticulture, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science

                Article
                10.3389/fpls.2017.01327
                5539188
                28824665
                dc659fea-89eb-4833-bf7f-3d60ba19393c
                Copyright © 2017 Xiong, Tian, Wang, Liu and Chen.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 14 May 2017
                : 14 July 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 3, Equations: 0, References: 37, Pages: 9, Words: 0
                Categories
                Plant Science
                Original Research

                Plant science & Botany
                rockwool,coconut coir,peat,nutrients,plant growth,tomato
                Plant science & Botany
                rockwool, coconut coir, peat, nutrients, plant growth, tomato

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