Riportiamo un interessante articolo sull’uso del digestato.
“Substitution of Peat in Horticultural Seedlings: Suitability of Digestate-Derived Compost from
Cattle Manure and Maize Silage Codigestion”
Tra gli autori anche Carlo Mininni, che ha conseguito
il nostro Master nel 2012.
Per la versione integrale dell’articolo scrivete a: cnr_master@ibba.cnr.it
Substitution of Peat in Horticultural Seedlings: Suitability of Digestate-Derived Compost from Cattle Manure and Maize Silage Codigestion
A. P. RESTREPO,1 E. MEDINA,1 A. PÉREZ-ESPINOSA,1
E. AGULLÓ,1 M. A. BUSTAMANTE,2 C. MININNI,3
M. P. BERNAL,2 AND R. MORAL1
1Department of Agrochemistry and Environment, Miguel Hernandez University,
Orihuela, Alicante, Spain
2Department of Soil and Water Conservation and Organic Waste Management,
Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Murcia, Spain
3Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Vegetali, Università degli Studi di Bari
“Aldo Moro,” Bari, Italy
The increasing demand for soilless media for horticultural crop production and the
rising environmental concerns about the use of non-renewable resources such as peat
as substrate has led to the search for alternative materials as constituents of grow-
ing media, such as waste organic by-products. Also, biogas production through the
anaerobic digestion of organic wastes generates a potential fertilizer, the digested
substrate (digestate). The aim of this work was to study the feasibility of using the
composted solid fraction of a digestate obtained after the codigestion of cattle manure
and maize–oat silage as a component in the formulation of growing media for the
commercial seedling production of three species: tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum
Mill.), muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.), and pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Four sub-
strates were compared: pure peat (control) and three mixtures containing 25%, 50%,
and 75% by volume of compost with the corresponding amount of peat. Physical,
physicochemical, and chemical analyses of the different growing media were carried
out and the effects of the different mixtures of peat/compost on seed germination and
on the nutritional status of the seedlings were also studied. In general, compost addition
neither influenced negatively the physical and physicochemical properties nor produced
any reduction in the germination rate in the species studied, but it did enhance the
seedlings’ nutritional status.
Keywords Anaerobic digestate, compost, growing media, seedling production
