Study on the application effect of waste feather and mushroom residue as main substrates
In order to improve the resource utilization of waste feathers and mushroom residue,and to find suitable substi-tute raw materials for peat,fully fermented feathers and mushroom residues combined with fermented products were used to replace peat.Different proportions of substrates were prepared by adding vermiculite and perlite and their effects on the seedling emergence rate of Shanghai green,tomato,and pepper,physical and chemical properties of the substrates,the growth and yield of pepper.The results show that compared with CK,when 25%,50%,75%and 100%feather-residue combined fermentation were used the seed emergence rate showed a trend of first increase and then decrease.When the re-placement amount was 50%,there was no significant difference between the seed emergence rate and CK.However,when the replacement amount was 75%,the seed emergence rate of Shanghai green seeds decreased by 44.79%.From the physical and chemical properties of the substrates,the pH,EC and bulk mass of the substrates were significantly in-creased when feathers and mushroom residue combined with fermentation were used to replace the peat.For the growth,development and yield of pepper,plant height,stem diameter,leaf length,leaf area,chlorophyll content and fresh plant mass of pepper were significantly increased when the replacement amount of feather and mushroom residue combined with fermentation was 50%,and the single fruit mass and yield per plant were increased by 36.33%and 118.95%,respec-tively.To sum up,the use of fully fermented feathers,mushroom residue combined fermentation to replace peat can im-prove the pH,EC and bulk density of the substrates,promote the growth of pepper,promote plant fresh mass,thereby in-creasing the single fruit mass of pepper and single plant yield.However,when used for seedling cultivation,the replace-ment amount of feathers and mushroom residue combined fermentation should be controlled below 50%,otherwise it will affect the emergence of vegetable seeds.