The suburbs of main cities of developing countries are characterized by a spread poverty and high rate of unemployment. The promotion of home and community gardens allows to produce fresh vegetables, in order to reach the goal of both improving people health, by diversifying diet, and creating employ opportunities. Often, in peri-urban areas, soils are not suitable for crop production. The adoption of soilless garden should allow to overtake this constrain. To assure soilless systems’ sustainability at stakeholder level, all materials have to be inexpensive and easy to find locally, and garden management must be simple. This work reports some results attained in two experiments carried out in Teresina (Brazil). In the first experiment, several natural substrates such as coconut fibre, rice hulls, babaçu palm and bamboo residues have been compared with a control (vermiculite) in order to assess seed germination of lettuce. Most of the natural substrates performed comparably or better than the control. In the second experiment, tomato and okra plants have been tested for their adaptability to two soilless systems and two nutrient solutions. Biometric measurements and phenological stages have been scheduled. At harvest, fruits have been counted and weighed to asses yield. Nutrient solution consumption has been measured throughout the growing period. Both tomato and okra showed interesting yield. Tomato, which is not grown on soil elsewhere in the nearby region, due to both limiting environmental conditions and diseases, produced from 1.0 to 3.1 kg m-2 depending on soilless system and nutrient solution. Period from sowing to first harvest was particularly short in soilless grown okra, and yield varied with treatments (from 1.7 to 2.5 kg m-2). The systems appeared to be economically sustainable.
GIANQUINTO G, ORSINI F., MICHELON N, FERREIRA DA SILVA D, DAMASIO DE FARIA F. (2006). IMPROVING YIELD OF VEGETABLES BY USING SOILLESS MICRO-GARDEN TECHNOLOGIES IN PERI-URBAN AREA OF NORTH-EAST BRAZIL.. AGADIR : HANAFI (ISHS).
IMPROVING YIELD OF VEGETABLES BY USING SOILLESS MICRO-GARDEN TECHNOLOGIES IN PERI-URBAN AREA OF NORTH-EAST BRAZIL.
PROSDOCIMI GIANQUINTO, GIORGIO;ORSINI, FRANCESCO;MICHELON, NICOLA;
2006
Abstract
The suburbs of main cities of developing countries are characterized by a spread poverty and high rate of unemployment. The promotion of home and community gardens allows to produce fresh vegetables, in order to reach the goal of both improving people health, by diversifying diet, and creating employ opportunities. Often, in peri-urban areas, soils are not suitable for crop production. The adoption of soilless garden should allow to overtake this constrain. To assure soilless systems’ sustainability at stakeholder level, all materials have to be inexpensive and easy to find locally, and garden management must be simple. This work reports some results attained in two experiments carried out in Teresina (Brazil). In the first experiment, several natural substrates such as coconut fibre, rice hulls, babaçu palm and bamboo residues have been compared with a control (vermiculite) in order to assess seed germination of lettuce. Most of the natural substrates performed comparably or better than the control. In the second experiment, tomato and okra plants have been tested for their adaptability to two soilless systems and two nutrient solutions. Biometric measurements and phenological stages have been scheduled. At harvest, fruits have been counted and weighed to asses yield. Nutrient solution consumption has been measured throughout the growing period. Both tomato and okra showed interesting yield. Tomato, which is not grown on soil elsewhere in the nearby region, due to both limiting environmental conditions and diseases, produced from 1.0 to 3.1 kg m-2 depending on soilless system and nutrient solution. Period from sowing to first harvest was particularly short in soilless grown okra, and yield varied with treatments (from 1.7 to 2.5 kg m-2). The systems appeared to be economically sustainable.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
