The Possibility of Using Palm Wastes Compost in Tomato Seedling Cultivation Substrate in Greenhouse Condition

Tomato is one of the most important crops, which is cultivated as seedlings. It is important to choose an economic and favorable cultivation medium for the production of good seedlings. In order to use the compost produced from palm pruning wastes as a substrate for the production of tomato seedlings, an experiment was carried out in the greenhouse conditions as completely randomized design with three replications in 2019-2018 at the research greenhouse of Soil and Water Research Institute. Five cultivation beds as treatments included: 1) compost produced from palm pruning wastes (palm peat) (PP), 2) peat moss (PM), 3) cocopeat (CP), 4) mixture of palm peat and peat moss (PP+PM), and 5) mixture of cocopeat and peat moss (CP+PM). Some plant indices, the concentration of plant nutrients and plant growth indicators were measured at the end of the growth period. The results showed that the highest amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (1.47% nitrogen, 0.18% phosphorus and 2.83% potassium) were observed in PM, CP and PP+PM treatments, respectively, which were significantly (p<0.01) different from other treatments. In terms of tomato seedling height, the best treatment was PM (8.34 cm), and PP (7.56 cm) and PP+PM (7.56 cm) were ranked second. The lowest seedling height was recorded in CP (5.37 cm). The highest and lowest values of root length were related to PP+PM (8.69 cm) and CP (6.62 cm), respectively, that were significantly (p<0.01) different. The economic results evaluation showed that palm peat is 50% cheaper than cocopeat and 100% cheaper than peat moss, and it can be used as a substitute for imported cocopeat and peat moss in tomato seedling cultivation.