Summary
The growth and development of tomato, ‘Potentate’, in sand and soil separates having a range of air capacities has been studied.
With the sand separates, an air capacity of 25 per cent gave optimum growth. Both the number of days to anthesis and the number of leaves produced before the first infloresence were negatively correlated with air capacity.
Tomatoes grown in soil separates with base fertilizer added before prickingout showed an optimum air capacity requirement of 5 per cent. Plants in similar substrates and receiving a nutrient solution at each irrigation were less responsive to differences in air capacity over the range 1.9 to 20 per cent. Differences in the air capacity of the substrate had no effect on the number of leaves produced before the first inflorescence and little effect on the number of days to anthesis.
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Bunt, A.C. Some physical properties of pot plant composts and their effect on plant growth. Plant Soil 15, 13–24 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01421747
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01421747