Physical characterization of growing media using standard methods (CEN) - Limitations of applicability for pine bark and vermiculite

A. Masaguer, P. Vidueira, A. Moliner, B. H. Zárate

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

CEN standards have helped to harmonize analytical methods for substrateanalysis. Though, for special substrates or constituents the applicability might be limited. In this paper a comparative study of implementation of CEN standards to samples of pine bark and vermiculite has been carried out. For composted pine bark, an elongation of the equilibrium period up to 72 instead of 48 hours might increase the accuracy of determinations physical parameters according to EN 13041. For vermiculite, we suggest pycnometry as a feasible technique for the determination of particle density (PD), as the determination of organic matter (OM) as requested by EN 13041 for the calculation of the PD seems not to be applicable for this kind of material.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Symposium on Growing Media, Composting and Substrate Analysis
PublisherInternational Society for Horticultural Science
Pages85-88
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)9789066057364
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Nov 2013

Publication series

NameActa Horticulturae
Volume1013
ISSN (Print)0567-7572

Keywords

  • Loss on mass on ignition
  • Pine bark
  • Vermiculite
  • Water retention

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