Pine Tree Substrate: A Promising Alternative to Peat Moss and Pine Bark

摘要

After 4 years of research and development at Virginia Tech, pine-tree substrate (WoodGro~(TM)) shows excellent promise as an alternative and renewable container substrate for nursery and greenhouse crop production (Wright and Browder, 2005; Wright etal., 2006; Wright et al., 2008). Pine-tree substrate is competitively priced, locally available, and of consistent high quality. This is a totally different approach to container substrate production in that a new material is created for use as a container substrate rather than mining peat (P) (a nonrenewable resource) or using pine bark (PB) or some other industry by-product. The development of a new substrate for container-grown nursery crops is very timely since the availability of PB is currently unpredictable due to reduced forestry production and its increased use as fuel and landscape mulch (Lu et al., 2006). Further, the cost of peat substrates continues to rise due to transportation and growing environmental concerns over the mining of P bogsin Canada and Europe. This paper reports the current status of our research including the manufacturing process, physical properties, cost, growth trials, wood toxicity, fertility management, and post-transplant landscape evaluation.