Monday, 7 November 2005
5

Greenhouse Vegetable Production with Nutrient-Charged Fe-Coated Zeolites.

John J. Sloan1, Rajan K. Vempati2, and Ramesh Hegde2. (1) Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas, TX 75252-6502, (2) ChK Group, Inc, 2045 Belgium Road, Plano, TX 75025

Greenhouse vegetable production is increasingly important for a variety of needs ranging from food security, to economic diversification, to NASA's mission to establish permanent habitations on the Moon or Mars. Iron-coated zeolites (Fe-Zeo) can be an important component of a greenhouse growing medium because they have the ability to retain both cationic and anionic nutrients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of fertilizer-charged Fe-Zeo in a greenhouse growing medium. Fe-Zeo was equilibrated with a nutrient solution that supplied specific amounts of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, plus micronutrients. The nutrient-charged Fe-Zeo was blended with quartz sand at rates of 0%, 11%, and 22% and placed in 4L containers. Metro Mix (MM), a commercially-available organic potting medium, was included as a control. Cherry tomato seedlings were transplanted into each container. No additional fertilizer was applied after transplanting except for the 0% Fe-Zeo treatment (pure sand). That treatment received the same amount of nutrients present in the 22% Fe-Zeo treatment, except the nutrients were supplied in ten equal applications spread over six weeks. In the absence of additional fertilization, tomato fruit production increased as the amount of nutrient-charged Fe-Zeo increased in the growing medium, but fruit production was less than that in the commercially available organic growing medium (MM) and the sand treatment that received regular applications of nutrient solution. Results suggest that Fe-Zeo can function as a reservoir for plant available nutrients, but the quantity of nutrients used to pre-charge the Fe-Zeo should be optimized so that nutrients do not become limiting during plant growth.

Handout (.pdf format, 733.0 kb)

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