Biochar versus hydrochar as growth media constituents for ornamental plant cultivation

[EN] Biochar and hydrochar have been proposed as novel materials for providing soilless growth media. However, much more knowledge is required before reliable advice can be given on the use of these materials for this purpose. Depending on the material and the technology applied (pyrolysis or hydrothermal carbonization), phytotoxicity and greenhouse gas emissions have been found for certain chars. In this study, our aim was to assess the feasibility of three chars as substrate constituents. We compared two biochars, one from forest waste and the other from olive mill waste, and a hydrochar from forest waste. We studied how chars affected substrate characteristics, plant performance, water economy and respiratory CO2 emission. Substrates containing biochar from forest waste showed the best characteristics, with good air/water relationships and adequate electrical conductivity. Those with biochar from olive mill waste were highly saline and, consequently, low quality. The substrates with hydrochar retained too much water and were poorly aerated, presenting high CO2 concentrations due to high respiratory activity. Plants performed well only when grown in substrates containing a maximum of 25 % biochar from forest waste or hydrochar. After analyzing the char characteristics, we concluded that biochar from forest waste could be safely used as a substrate constituent and is environmentally friendly when applied due to its low salinity and low CO2 emission. However, biochar from olive mill waste and hydrochar need to be improved before they can be used as substrate constituents.This study was funded by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Projects on New Multidisciplinary Research; PAID-05-12). We thank Molly Marcus-McBride for supervising the English.Fornes Sebastiá, F.; Belda Navarro, RM. (2018). Biochar versus hydrochar as growth media constituents for ornamental plant cultivation. Scientia Agricola (Online). 75(4):304-312. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-992X-2017-0062S304312754Abad, M., Noguera, P., & Burés, S. (2001). National inventory of organic wastes for use as growing media for ornamental potted plant production: case study in Spain. Bioresource Technology, 77(2), 197-200. doi:10.1016/s0960-8524(00)00152-8Bargmann, I., Martens, R., Rillig, M. C., Kruse, A., & Kücke, M. (2013). Hydrochar amendment promotes microbial immobilization of mineral nitrogen. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 177(1), 59-67. doi:10.1002/jpln.201300154Bargmann, I., Rillig, M. C., Buss, W., Kruse, A., & Kuecke, M. (2013). Hydrochar and Biochar Effects on Germination of Spring Barley. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 199(5), 360-373. doi:10.1111/jac.12024Bedussi, F., Zaccheo, P., & Crippa, L. (2015). Pattern of pore water nutrients in planted and non-planted soilless substrates as affected by the addition of biochars from wood gasification. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 51(5), 625-635. doi:10.1007/s00374-015-1011-6Belda, R. M., Lidón, A., & Fornes, F. (2016). Biochars and hydrochars as substrate constituents for soilless growth of myrtle and mastic. Industrial Crops and Products, 94, 132-142. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.08.024Costello, R. C., & Sullivan, D. M. (2013). Determining the pH Buffering Capacity of Compost Via Titration with Dilute Sulfuric Acid. Waste and Biomass Valorization, 5(3), 505-513. doi:10.1007/s12649-013-9279-yFernandes, C., & Corá, J. E. (2004). Bulk density and relationship air/water of horticultural substrate. Scientia Agricola, 61(4), 446-450. doi:10.1590/s0103-90162004000400015Fornes, F., Belda, R. M., Carrión, C., Noguera, V., García-Agustín, P., & Abad, M. (2007). Pre-conditioning ornamental plants to drought by means of saline water irrigation as related to salinity tolerance. Scientia Horticulturae, 113(1), 52-59. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2007.01.008Fornes, F., Belda, R. M., & Lidón, A. (2015). Analysis of two biochars and one hydrochar from different feedstock: focus set on environmental, nutritional and horticultural considerations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 86, 40-48. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.08.057Fornes, F., & Belda, R. M. (2017). Acidification with nitric acid improves chemical characteristics and reduces phytotoxicity of alkaline chars. Journal of Environmental Management, 191, 237-243. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.026Fornes, F., Belda, R. M., Fernández de Córdova, P., & Cebolla-Cornejo, J. (2017). Assessment of biochar and hydrochar as minor to major constituents of growing media for containerized tomato production. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 97(11), 3675-3684. doi:10.1002/jsfa.8227Fornes, F., Carrión, C., García-de-la-Fuente, R., Puchades, R., & Abad, M. (2010). Leaching composted lignocellulosic wastes to prepare container media: Feasibility and environmental concerns. Journal of Environmental Management, 91(8), 1747-1755. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.03.017GARCIADELAFUENTE, R., CARRION, C., BOTELLA, S., FORNES, F., NOGUERA, V., & ABAD, M. (2007). Biological oxidation of elemental sulphur added to three composts from different feedstocks to reduce their pH for horticultural purposes. Bioresource Technology, 98(18), 3561-3569. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2006.11.008Genty, B., Briantais, J.-M., & Baker, N. R. (1989). The relationship between the quantum yield of photosynthetic electron transport and quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects, 990(1), 87-92. doi:10.1016/s0304-4165(89)80016-9Hoitink, H. A. J., Stone, A. G., & Han, D. Y. (1997). Suppression of Plant Diseases by Composts. HortScience, 32(2), 184-187. doi:10.21273/hortsci.32.2.184Libra, J. A., Ro, K. S., Kammann, C., Funke, A., Berge, N. D., Neubauer, Y., … Emmerich, K.-H. (2011). Hydrothermal carbonization of biomass residuals: a comparative review of the chemistry, processes and applications of wet and dry pyrolysis. Biofuels, 2(1), 71-106. doi:10.4155/bfs.10.81Mazuela, P., Salas, M. del C., & Urrestarazu, M. (2005). Vegetable Waste Compost as Substrate for Melon. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 36(11-12), 1557-1572. doi:10.1081/css-200059054Méndez, A., Paz-Ferreiro, J., Gil, E., & Gascó, G. (2015). The effect of paper sludge and biochar addition on brown peat and coir based growing media properties. Scientia Horticulturae, 193, 225-230. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2015.07.032Nieto, A., Gascó, G., Paz-Ferreiro, J., Fernández, J. M., Plaza, C., & Méndez, A. (2016). The effect of pruning waste and biochar addition on brown peat based growing media properties. Scientia Horticulturae, 199, 142-148. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2015.12.012Sáez, J. A., Belda, R. M., Bernal, M. P., & Fornes, F. (2016). Biochar improves agro-environmental aspects of pig slurry compost as a substrate for crops with energy and remediation uses. Industrial Crops and Products, 94, 97-106. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.08.035Smith, B. R., Fisher, P. R., & Argo, W. R. (2004). Growth and Pigment Content of Container-grown Impatiens and Petunia in Relation to Root Substrate pH and Applied Micronutrient Concentration. HortScience, 39(6), 1421-1425. doi:10.21273/hortsci.39.6.1421Solaiman, Z. M., Murphy, D. V., & Abbott, L. K. (2011). Biochars influence seed germination and early growth of seedlings. Plant and Soil, 353(1-2), 273-287. doi:10.1007/s11104-011-1031-4Steiner, C., & Harttung, T. (2014). Biochar as a growing media additive and peat substitute. Solid Earth, 5(2), 995-999. doi:10.5194/se-5-995-2014Tian, Y., Sun, X., Li, S., Wang, H., Wang, L., Cao, J., & Zhang, L. (2012). Biochar made from green waste as peat substitute in growth media for Calathea rotundifola cv. Fasciata. Scientia Horticulturae, 143, 15-18. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2012.05.018Vaughn, S. F., Eller, F. J., Evangelista, R. L., Moser, B. R., Lee, E., Wagner, R. E., & Peterson, S. C. (2015). Evaluation of biochar-anaerobic potato digestate mixtures as renewable components of horticultural potting media. Industrial Crops and Products, 65, 467-471. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.10.04

Caracterização física de dois substratos orgânicos para plantas e a estimativa da umidade por meio da reflectometria no domínio do tempo Physical characterization of two organic substrates for plants and the estimate of water content through the time domain reflectometry

O crescente uso de substratos na produção agrícola e no cultivo em ambiente protegido, promove produção em grande escala. Nesse sentido, as caracterizações químicas, biológicas e físicas desses materiais se fazem necessárias à proposição e à avaliação de padrões de qualidade que devem preceder a sua comercialização. As propriedades físicas dos substratos influenciam no bom desenvolvimento da plantas, sobretudo, no manejo de irrigação, onde a compreensão da relação retenção de água e aeração é imprescindível. Para tanto, mostra-se necessário que também se determine o volume de água presente nos substratos utilizados. Nesse sentido, o uso da reflectometria no domínio do tempo (TDR) pode representar um avanço em estudos dessa natureza. Dessa forma, baseado na determinação das curvas de retenção de água, neste trabalho, foram feitas as caracterizações físicas de dois substratos orgânicos: casca de pinus e fibra de coco. Também foram ajustadas, para cada um dos substratos avaliados, uma curva de calibração, através da qual, por meio da técnica da TDR, estimou-se o seu conteúdo de água. De maneira geral, com exceção da densidade seca, os substratos em estudo apresentaram características físicas da relação ar-água muito semelhantes. Quando comparado com os valores obtidos pelo método gravimétrico, na faixa de água facilmente disponível, a técnica da TDR apresentou um bom desempenho na estimativa da umidade de ambos substratos apresentando um coeficiente de determinação de 0,9319 para a casca de pinus e de 0,9385 para a fibra de coco.<br>The increasing use of substrates on agricultural production and controlled environment has been promoting its large scale production. In this way, chemical, biological and physical characterizations of these materials are necessary to the quality standard proposal and evaluation which must precede its commercialization. High plants development has been influenced by substrates physical properties, mainly on irrigation handling, where understanding about water retention and pore aeration is essential. Water volume determination on substrates used during experiments has been necessary, and in this way the use of the Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) can represent an advance about this kind of researches. Based on water retention curve determination, this research, has been carried on physical characterizations of two organic substrates: coconut fiber and pine bark substrates. Also, a calibration curve has been adjusted for each tested substrates, and through TDR technique was estimated the water content. In a general, except to the dry density, the tested substrates has showed similar characteristics about its water-air relation. In the range readily available water, for both tested substrates, the TDR technique has showed a good performance on the water content estimative, with a determination coefficient of 0.9319 to the pine barks and 0.9385 to the coconut fiber

ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae in households with children of preschool age: prevalence, risk factors and co-carriage

Objectives ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae are an emerging public health concern. As households with preschool children may substantially contribute to the community burden of antimicrobial resistance, we determined the prevalence, risk factors and co-carriage of ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria in preschool children and their parents. Methods From April 2013 to January 2015, each month 2000 preschool children were randomly selected from Dutch population registries. The parents were invited to complete an epidemiological questionnaire and to obtain and send a faecal sample from the selected child and from one parent. Samples were tested for ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for ESBL/AmpC carriage in children and parents, and findings were internally validated by bootstrapping. Results In total, 1016 families were included and ESBL/AmpC prevalence was 4.0% (95% CI 3.2%–5.0%); 3.5% (95% CI 2.5%–4.8%) in children and 4.5% (95% CI 3.4%–6.0%) in parents. Attending a daycare centre (DCC) was the only significant risk factor for children (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.0–4.3). For parents, the only significant risk factor was having one or more children attending DCCs (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2–4.8). For parents of ESBL/AmpC-positive children the OR for ESBL/AmpC carriage was 19.7 (95% CI 9.2–42.4). Co-carriage of specific ESBL/AmpC genotypes in child and parent occurred more often than expected by chance (14.6% versus 1.1%, P < 0.001). Conclusions In this study, intestinal carriage with ESBL/AmpCs was detected in ∼4% of households with preschool children. DCC attendance was a risk factor in both children and parents and co-carriage of specific genotypes frequently occurred in child–parent pairs. These findings suggest household transmission or/and family-specific exposure to common sources of ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria

Reavaliação dos critérios constantes na legislação brasileira para análises de substratos

No Brasil, o Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento é o responsável pela legislação que regulamenta as especificações, garantias, tolerâncias, registro, embalagem e rotulagem de substratos para as plantas. Na Instrução Normativa n.º 14 e nas IN nº 17 e 31 estão as exigências quanto aos valores e aos métodos de pH, condutividade elétrica (CE), densidade seca, capacidade de retenção de água (CRA10) e umidade. Os desvios aceitáveis são de ±0,5 para o pH, ±0,3 dS m-1 para a CE, ±15% para densidade seca, até -10% (m/m) para a CRA10 e até +10% para umidade. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar as medidas de pH, CE, densidade seca, CRA10 e umidade de diversos substratos para as plantas, durante o período de seis meses de armazenamento, fornecendo subsídios técnicos para a legislação brasileira. Utilizaram-se nove amostras de substratos comerciais, orgânicas e inorgânicas. Alguns desvios em relação à faixa tolerada pela normativa brasileira foram observados para o pH, CE, CRA10 e umidade em 5,4,6 e 2 amostras respectivamente. Os resultados de densidade seca estavam dentro da faixa permitida pela legislação brasileira. A CRA10 foi a de maior restrição quanto à legislação brasileira, seguida dos valores de pH. Sugere-se o aumento da tolerância para CRA de -15% (m/m) e para o valor de pH±1,0. Além disso, recomenda-se uma reavaliação por parte dos produtores de substratos em relação às matérias-primas constituintes de alguns substratos ou do tempo de armazenamento