Abstract

MARQUEZ HERNANDEZ, Cándido; CANO RIOS, Pedro  and  RODRIGUEZ DIMAS, Norma. Use of organic substrates for the production of tomato in greenhouse. Agric. Téc. Méx [online]. 2008, vol.34, n.1, pp.69-74. ISSN 0568-2517.

Organic food production is an alternative for consumers who prefer food free of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, innocuous and with a high nutritional value. However, organic certification indicates a period of transition of three to five years without application of any synthetic product to the soil, period that most of the producers, are not willing to accept, because that implies a risk for their capital. On the other hand, the organic tomato in Mexico reaches a price of 5.84 times greater than the conventional one; to produce it in greenhouse would increase considerably yield, and therefore the economic benefit for the producer. Nevertheless, a substrate is necessary that besides, support contributes with considerable amounts of nutrients that satisfy the demands of the cultures. An alternative is compost, which mixed with inert materials, will improve its physical and chemical characteristics avoiding hypoxia. The objective of this work was to evaluate substrates made with mixtures between composts, biocomposta and vermicompost, and inert substrates, sand and perlite at various levels under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was carried out in Matamoros, Coahuila, Mexico, in the Experimental Station La Laguna facilities, from october 1^st, 2003 up to march 30^th, 2004, using the Bosky genotype. The best four mixtures were vermicompost with sand at 50% level and vermicompost with perlita at 37,5 and 50% levels and biocomposta with perlita at 37.5% level with a mean yield of 91.42 t ha^-1 surpassing the open field yields by 9.14 times, without affecting fruit quality.

Keywords : Lycopersicon esculentum L.; compost; vermicompost; inert materials; ecologic production.

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