Production of Cucumber Seedlings on Alternative Substrates

Abstract

Cucumber is a widely used and very consumed vegetable in all regions of Brazil, and research is needed with alternative substrates that reduce the cost of production and are sustainable. The objective was to evaluate the production of cucumber seedlings in substrates made of different proportions of earthworm humus and sand. The experiment was conducted at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Cassilândia-MS, in an agricultural screen consisting of a monofilament screen of 30% shading. Five substrates (S) from the combinations (%) of different proportions of Earthworm Humus and Sand, in the proportion of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% were evaluated. The emergence speed index, emergence percentage, seedling height, number of leaves, neck diameter, shoot dry mass, root system and total dry mass were evaluated. The percentage data were transformed into sine arc of the root of x plus middle. The experimental design was completely randomized with 4 replicates of 10 seedlings. The data were submitted to analysis of variance (F test) and the means were compared by the tukey test at 5% probability. For the emergency variables there was no difference between the substrates. While for the other growth variables, the presence of organic compost from the earthworm humus promoted an increase in initial growth. Alternative substrates are recommended, consisting of earthworm humus and sand from 25% earthworm húmus to provide high quality seedlings.