Sustratos: ¿El tamaño de partícula y su origen importa?

As innovative as substrate-based crop production may be, selecting the optimal substrate remains a challenge for novice and experienced technicians alike. Ultimately, crop success depends not only on crop management but, fundamentally, on providing the crop with conditions conducive to its growth. Selecting an unsuitable substrate or failing to understand its nature, origin, and particle-size distribution places the grower on a learning curve marked by significant challenges and economic losses that are ultimately unsustainable. This discussion offers a general overview of why particle size must be considered before undertaking the production of high-investment, high-return crops, whether organic or inorganic. Accordingly, one of the principal factors determining the success of a substrate-grown crop is its physical quality. It is essential to ensure that the substrate exhibits optimal physical characteristics aeration, particle-size distribution, and water-holding capacity since once the crop is established there is no reversing course, whereas chemical properties can, to some extent, be amended. The substrate has come to be regarded merely as a medium for intensive production and, as such, warrants thorough characterization. It falls to us to achieve a balance among readily available water, air-filled porosity, drainage, physical stability, and the crop's requirements. Although one would physically expect higher bulk density to reduce water movement, composition, particle size, and pore structure exert a far more decisive influence.