Pre-charged biochar and zeolite as soilless substrate amendments and slow release fertilizers: effects on basil and spinach quality
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Growing global awareness of the importance of sustainability and knowledge of the environmental impacts of the non-renewable materials in the horticultural industry are leading to ongoing research to discover viable alternatives. In recent years, biochar and zeolite have drawn significant attention, and have been proven to have many benefits in promoting plant growth and quality (Kolar et al., 2010; Yao et al., 2013 and Lija et al., 2014). However, some studies have questioned the positive impact without additional fertilizer application (Huang et al., 2013). Moreover, studies on the effects of biochar and zeolite when used in combination have been limited. Therefore, we proposed the use of nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium (NPK) pre-charged biochar and zeolite as soilless substrate amendments in order to increase greenhouse production sustainability. We hypothesized that NPK pre-charged biochar and zeolite could release plant nutrients in biologically available forms, and effectively act as a slow release fertilizer (SRF). The combination of charged biochar and zeolite was expected to increase crop yield and promote a better crop quality at low levels of application. Two relatively fast growing plants, Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) and Tyee spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) were selected for this study. Seed germination was not affected by any factors. NPK charging had a neutral to positive effect on seedling growth of both species, as well as on mature spinach plants. In addition, plant nitrogen accumulation was significantly improved by NPK charging. However, its effect on basil plants and plant phosphorus accumulation was negative to natural. The choice of amendment ratio was not a significant factor on altering all seedlings and spinach plants growth, but amended substrate had neutral to positive impacts when compared to the control. In the plant stage, substrate amended with less biochar supported the best basil growth. A minor abiotic stress on spinach may was caused by amendments, as showed by increases in oxalic acid and sugar content on leaves and reduction in shoot phosphorus content. This research clearly demonstrates that NPK charged biochar, when used in combination with zeolite, could be used as a SRF to replace commercial product and as a substrate amendment to partially replace peat-based medium. According to the specific crop needs, for better Tyee spinach plant growth, substrate amended with 22.5% charged biochar and 20% charged zeolite is recommended; however, it is only suggested to use 5% charged biochar in paired with 10% charged zeolite for better basil growth and quality.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".