Date of Award
5-1-2017
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Plant and Soil Science
First Advisor
Stoelzle Midden, Karen
Second Advisor
Walters, Stuart
Abstract
The germination rates of four plant species (Allium schoenoprasum L., Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Grandiflorus’ Vill., Sedum kamtschaticum Fisch. & C.A. Mey. Spp. ellacombianum (Praeger) R.T. Clausen, and Talinum calycinum Engelm.) were compared with six fertility treatments (control, fertilizer - once a week, double fertilizer - twice a week, mycorrhizae, vermicompost, and green roof mix) that also evaluated a peat based greenhouse medium verses a lightweight aggregate medium integrated. The greenhouse medium had higher germination rates than the lightweight aggregate medium. The control, fertilizer, and double fertilizer, which were not applied until a month into the study, provided similar germination results. The seedlings obtained from the germination study were grown into 3.81cm x 7.62cm plugs, with plant height, leaf count/width, and dry weight taken three months later. The greenhouse medium treatments control, fertilizer, and double fertilizer had the most leaves, and provided the tallest and widest leaves as well as the greatest biomass. The lightweight aggregate medium control displayed the lowest growth in this study. The fertility treatment that showed the most potential was the green roof mix. This mix significantly improved plant growth in the lightweight aggregate medium, which indicates the potential to improve greenhouse medium based plug establishment on extensive green roofs with aggregates.
Access
This thesis is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.