Open AccessScreening of Wetting Agent for Peat Substrate and Its Effect on Cucumber Seedlings
Author(s) -
Qingjie Du,
Huaijuan Xiao,
Juanqi Li,
Jiqing Wang,
Yiying Zhao
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/453/1/012079
Subject(s) - seedling , chemistry , fatty alcohol , peat , wetting , alcohol , substrate (aquarium) , horticulture , dry weight , organic chemistry , materials science , biology , ecology , composite material
Peat is a widely used horticultural substrate, and its inherent hydrophobicity lead to inconvenience to the transportation and application of the peat substrate. In our experiment, three common wetting agent, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether O-20, sodium butyl naphthalene sulfonate and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate were used to wet the peat. The best wetting effect on peat was obtained by fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether O-20. Cucumber seedling was subjected to different concentrations of fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether O-20 to wet the peat. We investigated the changes in emergence rate, above and below morphology and dry quality, and growth of cucumber seedlings. The results showed that the suitable concentration of fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether O-20 could increase the emergence rate of cucumber, the growth of hypocotyl, and root volume of seedlings. However, the stem diameter, fresh quality, underground dry weight and seedling index were not significantly different compared with control. Different concentrations of treatment had no significant effect on cucumber leaf number, maximum root length and shoot dry mass. In conclusion, the fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether O-20 with a concentration of 1.0 g/L is suitable for wetting the grass charcoal matrix, which has good economic and seedling effects.