JPH0655074B2 - Medium for plant cultivation - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an artificial plant cultivation medium suitable for raising seedlings and cultivating all kinds of plants such as sugar beet and flowers.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, natural soil has generally been used as a medium for plant cultivation. However, it requires labor and labor for so-called soil preparation such as soil excavation, sieving, disinfection, fertilization, acidity adjustment, etc., and there has been a problem in recent labor situations. In recent years, there are some cases where plant cultivation is hindered due to continuous cropping problems and diseases caused by insufficient maintenance of these soils.
Under such circumstances, cultivation using an artificial medium such as rock wool has recently been tried without using natural soil. However, rock wool has a problem of handling such as root rot due to excessive water retention, tingling when touched, and bad health when sucking powder, and physical shape retention of density and hardness. In addition to being uneven depending on the location, the ingredients of rockwool are soluble and active, so that they show strong alkalinity and calcium and magnesium elute, which makes it difficult to use for plant cultivation.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention has no problems such as elution of components, can be controlled without disturbing the fertilizer components, can arbitrarily set the fertilizer components necessary for plant cultivation, and can appropriately select the type and amount of fertilizer. Fertilizer can be set according to
Another object of the present invention is to provide a plant-cultivating medium that does not require pH adjustment, can retain an appropriate amount of water during irrigation, and has a large amount of available air of about 30% in the gas phase, which has many voids.

(Means for Solving Problems) In the present invention, the fiber length is 25 to 150 mm, and the fiber thickness is 0.5 to 1.
00 denier mainly synthetic fiber short fibers and the synthetic fiber short fibers are thermoadhesive short fibers having a component having a low melting point of 20 ° C. or more on the surface, the former vs. the latter being 90 to 60% by weight vs.
It is composed of a short fiber block body which is mixed and adhered at a ratio of 40% by weight and has a shape of adhesive, and the thickness of the short fiber block body is 0.5.
A ～15Cm, density 0.005~0.07g / cm ³
Is a medium for plant cultivation.

The short fiber block body constituting the medium for plant cultivation of the present invention does not elute the components at all, and has a very stable physicochemical property, and the rigidity of the fiber is lower than that of inorganic fibers such as rock fiber, and it is tingling even when touched. Since it is extremely easy to handle, it does not cause harm even if it enters the human body such as a respiratory organ without irritating the skin. Is. In this case, it is preferable that the synthetic fiber short fibers are contained in at least 50% or more. The other fibers may be natural fibers or the like. Examples of the synthetic fibers include polyester fibers, polyamide fibers, polyethylene fibers, polypropylene fibers, vinyl chloride, and vinylidene chloride fibers. The synthetic fiber short fibers must have a fiber length of 25 to 150 mm and a fiber thickness of 0.5 to 100 denier.
Whether the fiber length is shorter or longer than this, it is difficult to form a card web for retaining the block shape, which is a problem in production.
The fiber thickness must be 0.5 to 100 denier. If it is less than 0.5 denier, the block does not have bulk during shape retention, the fiber density of the block is too high, and the water retention is too good like rock wool, and water permeability is low and problems such as root rot are likely to occur. On the other hand, when it exceeds 100 denier, a rough block is formed, and capillary action hardly occurs, resulting in insufficient water retention and diffusion of water into the block, which is not preferable. On the other hand, when the fiber has a denier of 100 denier or more, the extension of the root stretched in the block is hindered and the growth is deteriorated. The fiber length and the fiber thickness do not have to be constant values as long as they are within the above range, and different fiber lengths and fiber thicknesses may be mixed.

The above-mentioned synthetic fiber short fibers are mixed with the heat-adhesive short fibers having a component having a low melting point of 20 ° C. or higher on the surface thereof.

The heat-adhesive short fibers are fibers spun in parallel or in a core-sheath structure with a high-melting point component so that the low-melting point component appears at least on the surface, and the combination of each component is polyethylene / polypropylene, polypropylene / polyester, nylon 6 / nylon. 66, or ethylene vinyl acetate / polypropylene, etc. are exemplified.

The difference in melting point is required to be 20 ° C. or more, and if it is less than this, it is not preferable because it is impossible to deal with the problem of non-fused portions due to uneven heating that increases as the thickness increases. A melting point difference of 20 ° C. or more and 200 ° C. or less is preferable. Since the fiber length of the heat-adhesive short fibers has a good card passing property for forming a web,
The same fiber length as the synthetic fiber short fibers described above is preferable.

In addition, the mixing ratio of the synthetic fiber short fibers and the heat-adhesive short fibers is 90 to 60% by weight versus 10 to 40% by weight for the former vs. the latter.
It is necessary to be. When the mixing ratio of the heat-adhesive short fibers is less than 10%, since there are few adhesion points, only soft and fluffy blocks can be formed on the whole, which is not desirable as a medium for supporting plants. If the mixing ratio of the heat-adhesive short fibers exceeds 40% by weight, the blocks will be hard and will interfere with plant growth.

Short fiber block body constituting the medium for plant cultivation of the present invention, after mixing and mixing the short fibers described above, hung on a card,
The obtained card webs are laminated and pressed by a caterpillar, and a temperature above the softening point of the low melting point component is applied to melt and adhere only the low melting point component to obtain the shape.

Density of short fiber block is 0.005-0.07g / cm
³ is suitable and the density is less than 0.005 _g / _cm3 ,
It becomes too coarse and is inferior in water retention and water diffusion.
If it exceeds 7 g / cm ³ , the density becomes too high and the water permeability becomes poor, and further, there is a problem in the root growth of plants, which is not preferable. Also, the thickness of the short fiber block body is 0.5 to 15 cm.
is necessary. With a non-woven sheet having a thickness of less than 0.5 cm, the roots cannot extend into the block and cannot support the plant. Also, if the thickness exceeds 15 cm, it is difficult to keep the shape with the current technology and to commercialize it. Further, if a large thickness is required, the block bodies may be stacked and used as one block body.

(Example) Example 1 denier of polyester 38 mm cut cotton 40%, polyester 10 denier 64 mm cut cotton 30%, polyethylene / polyester thermal adhesive fiber 4 denier 51 mm cut cotton 30% are mixed and hung on a card to obtain a card web. It was This is laminated and the thickness is 7 cm and the bulk specific gravity is 0.03 g / cm ^3.
It was made into a block body, and heated to retain its shape. This was cut into a length of 10 cm × a width of 10 cm (referred to as a block body A) and a length of 30 cm × a width of 90 cm (referred to as a block body B). Unlike rock wool, which has a high pH as it is, this material does not require any pre-planting treatment such as pH adjustment with sulfuric acid solution and can be watered as it is. The vapor phase rate after watering is 2
It showed an ideal medium characteristic with a very large gas phase of 8%.

First, tomato seedlings were raised using the block body A, and after about 3 months, the seedling-growing blocks were arranged on the upper portion of the block body B at 40 cm intervals and planted.

During tomato cultivation, the state of production was investigated while instilling an amount of brackish water and a culture solution corresponding to the flow rate of the crop and cultivation system.

In rockwool medium, the concentration of the culture solution due to elution of components,
Although it was difficult to control the pH, the medium of the present invention was extremely stable, easy to handle and easy to manage, and the growth results such as plant height, number of nodes, maximum leaf length, stem diameter, etc., and accumulated yield of tomatoes observed 3 months after planting. Even in this case, it was not so different from that of natural soil cultivation.

(Effect of the invention) Since the medium for plant cultivation of the present invention is composed of synthetic fiber short fibers, the constituent components do not elute or easily decompose and rot, are physicochemically stable, and have fiber thickness and By arbitrarily selecting the shape retention density, it is possible to arbitrarily design the water retention and water permeability according to the type of plant,
Easy to manage nutrient solution. Moreover, since the block has a uniform density and hardness, it is easy to handle, and industrial production is possible. In addition, like rock wool, it is easy to handle because it does not get dirty even if you touch it with your hands, it does not cause tingling and irritation to the skin.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fiber length of 25 to 150 mm and a fiber thickness of 0.5 to
100 denier mainly synthetic fiber short fibers and the synthetic fiber short fibers are heat-adhesive short fibers having a component having a low melting point of 20 ° C. or higher on the surface, the former vs. the latter being 90 to 60% by weight: 10
It consists of a short fiber block body which is mixed and maintained in an adhesive shape at a ratio of 40 to 40% by weight, and the thickness of the short fiber block body is 0.
5 to 15 cm with a density of 0.005 to 0.07 g / cm
^3. A plant culture medium characterized by being ³ .