Growth of vegetable seedlings on organic substrates

Abstract

The production of seedlings is an important step in the cultivation of vegetables, because it
depends on the final performance. The availability of suitable substrates for organic agriculture
is a demand of farmers. Generally, the products available are formulated with non-renewable
inputs. In this work, the development of arugula, beet, and tomato seedlings on two substrates
was evaluated. The first substrate consisted of 83% vermicompost, 15% charcoal and 2% castor
bean cake. The second treatment was constituted by a commercial substrate with organic certification,
enriched with 2% of castor cake. No interaction was observed between the sampling
times and the substrates for shoot height and number of leaves, for the species tested. The
commercial substrate provided development of arugula and beet seedlings superior to the Vermicomposto
substrate, but in relation to the tomato seedlings, there were no significant differences.