Production of organic melon seedlings under different growing medias and doses of aqueous humic extract

Aiming to determine the viability of organic compost (OC) as a component of commercial growing media (CGM), as its potential in the formulation of humic extract (HE), an experiment was developed with organic melon seedlings. A completely randomized design with 4x5 factorial arrangement and four replicates was adopted. The treatments consisted of four compost proportions (0, 10, 20 and 30%), mixed to the growing media (v:v), associated with the application of five doses of aqueous extract obtained from the same compost (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%). The following variables were evaluated: total percent emergence (TPE), emergence rate index (ERI), emergence rate (ER), leaf area (LA), number of leaves (NL), dry and fresh mass of shoot and root (SDM, SFM, RDM and RFM); length (RL) and volume of root (RV); and shoot (SDMC) and root dry matter content (RDMC). Only NL provided interaction between the analyzed factors. ER, RFM, RDM, and RDMC showed no statistically significant differences across the various concentrations of OC and HE. SFM and SDM presented a negative quadratic term in relation to OC increase. SDMC and LA had inferior results at greater OC amount. OC is not recommended as a conditioner for growing media, at the conditions and variables analyzed in this study.