Home gardeners in areas with alkaline water sources do not have means of acidifying water for vegetable production. A solution to achieving optimal yields with alkaline irrigation water is to use specialized media; however, current media available does not meet these needs. New media recipes with varied levels (0 to 8 lbs/yd3) and sources of Ca (dolomitic lime, calcium sulfate) and Mg (dolomitic lime, magnesium sulfate) were tested using alkaline irrigation on lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower crops under high tunnel and on nursery yard sites. Media treatments with an 80:20 bark:peat and 7.1 kg/m3 slow release 15-9-11 base mix and the following fertilizer levels: 2.4 kg/yd3 calcium sulfate and 2.4 kg/yd3 magnesium sulfate (Ca/Mg); 2.4 kg/yd3 dolomitic lime (4L); 2.4 kg/yd3 dolomitic lime, 2.4 kg/yd3 calcium sulfate, and 2.4 kg/yd3 magnesium sulfate (4L+Ca/Mg); 4.7 kg/yd3 dolomitic lime (8L), outperformed a commercially available (IS) and control (C) (no Ca or Mg fertilizer) media in nearly all crops. All crops grown on the nursery yard and cabbage grown under the high tunnel had significantly greater yields when grown in medium 4L+Ca/Mg, compared to the IS and C media (p≤0.05). Media treatment 4L produced significantly greater yields and plant growth of all tested crops on the nursery yard compared to the IS and C media (p≤0.05). Media longevity was tested by planting cucumber, tomato, and bell pepper into the same pots, at the same sites, during the spring with no additional pre-plant amendments added to the media. All crops grown on the nursery yard, and cucumber and bell pepper grown under the high tunnel, had significantly greater yields when grown in media 4L+Ca/Mg and 8L, compared to the IS (p≤0.05). Tomatoes and bell peppers grown on the nursery yard and under the high tunnel had significantly greater growth and yield when grown in 4L+Ca/Mg and 8L, compared to the C medium (p≤0.05).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04082014-091530 |
| Date | 11 April 2014 |
| Creators | Bertrand, Sarah E |
| Contributors | Johnson, Charles, Bush, Edward, Fontenot, Kathryn |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04082014-091530/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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