Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Yung-Hsiung Cheng, Chi-Cheng Chen* and Hui-Fang Ni

Abstract:

    Utilization of agricultural wastes as growth media not only can decrease the environmental pollution, but also reduce production cost. In the study, we used dairy dung compost, hog dung compost, and sugarcane waste compost as nutrient sources to mix with basal medium to develop several growth media for culturing vegetable leafy sweet potato. Basal medium was made from rice husk mixed with rice bran and peat moss at a ratio of 1:2:2 (v/v/v), and then composted with 8 weeks. Results showed that the conductivity of growth media containing 15%, 20% and 25% hog dung compost were less than 3.8 ds/m, and other receipt growth media were above 4.0 ds/m. The contents of total nitrogen, phosphate and potassium were not significantly different among all tested growth media. By comparing the growth yield of leafy sweet potato, growth medium containing 15% hog dung compost or dairy dung compost was better than 15% sugarcane waste compost. In pot culture, growth media containing 15%, 20% and 25% hog dung compost could maintain the production of leafy sweet potato as long as 45 days with harvesting 4 times. Growth media containing two kinds of composts had better leafy sweet potato yield than that containing single compost.

Key words:Leafy sweet potato, Dairy dung compost, Hog dung compost, Sugarcane waste compost, Growth medium

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