Coffee husk biodegradable pots for the production of vegetable Seedlings, Estelí, Nicaragua

Abstract

A new method of seedtime and transplant was developed using biodegradable pots from coffee husks. The research was carried out at the facilities of the National University of Engineering Northern Campus. For the collection of information, qualitative tools were used, such as interviews with vegetable growers and experiments to determined the physical properties of biodegradable pots. The experiments determined that the best mixture to build biodegradable pots is the one that included coffee husk, corn starch and agricultural lime. Its resistance and viability of compaction provide the necessary characteristics for this product to fulfill its function of planting and transplanting of seedlings of vegetables. Tomato seedlings, Solanum lycopersicum and chiltoma, Capsicum annuum, were used to test the pots, the control was plastic trays. The results were validated with vegetable producers, to know their concerns and comments about the
biodegradable pots.