Corn cobs as growing media for the production of cucumber plants in the agriculture sector: A new trend

Abstract

Abstract Peat and perlite are considered traditional growing substrates in soilless culture. The high cost of both and the urgent need for agricultural waste recycling have pushed scientists and soilless culture growers to find alternative growing substrates that provide optimal growth conditions and help dispose of wastes safely. In this study, corn cobs (CB) were tested as growing media and compared with peat moss (PM) and perlite (P). The tested organic wastes (CB), peatmoss and perlite were examined with washed sand (WS) in five treatments (washed sand, corn cob, corn cobs + peat, corn cobs + perlite and corn cobs + sand). cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants cultivated using 5 kg pots containing the investigated substrates. Vegetative growth parameters, early fruiting stages, photosynthetic pigments and yield of cucumber gave the highest values with (CB) and (CB) + (P) substrates, while the lowest values were found in (WS) and (CB) + (PS). corn cobs resulted in greater flowering in terms of the number of fruits per plant and yield, which were 39.70% and 37.33% and 33.67% and 29.88 in both seasons higher than those in the lowest substrate (washed sand). Although adding perlite to corn cobs showed the highest values of measured growth characteristics, its high cost decreased net profit. The best net profit value was gained using corn cob substrate only, followed by (CB) + (P) substrate. In addition to the obtained results, (CB) characteristics as a growing media qualify it to be used in cucumber soilless culture production. The use of this replacement media, which contains crushed corn cobs, could reduce (but not eliminate) peatmoss and perlite requirements in soilless culture. In addition, the use of pyrolyzed biomass in growing media provides another way to convert biomass residues into useful products.