Investigation of <i>Mikania micrantha</i> Charcoal Applied on Cultural Media

Abstract

Mikania mirantha is a pernicious world-class weed with extremely high threats to the native flora, and ranks no. 1 on the invasive alien plants list. In this study, Mikania mirantha was carbonized to form the carbide, which is called Mikania mirantha charcoal (MMC). MMC’s pH value more than 9 increases with the carbonizing temperature. Besides, MMC has many microelements consist of calcium, magnesium, potassium and silicon that are helpful to the growth of the plant. Therefore, this research is to investigate the physical and chemical properties of MMC-mixed peat media and the seedling index of the vegetable for using MMC mixed with peat media to substitute the commercial perlite peat (CPP) as culture media of the vegetable seedlings. The results showed that MMC-mixed peat media (MMC-P) whose total porosity was more than 85% were belonged to the type of lighter media. The pH value of MMC-mixed media before seeding belongs to neutrality and close weak alkali. After seeding for the 39th day, the seedling index of MMC-mixed media was 0.086-0.101, which was a little lower than that of CPP, 0.11. It resulted from a higher pH value from MMC. As a whole, MMC would be also used as the biofertilizer to improve the acid soil. This study suggests that MMC can be washed by other natural acidity media to change its pH value, which is possible to promote MMC-mixed media to substitute CPP media.

Preliminary Safety Evaluation of Bamboo Pyrolysis Products: Charcoal and Vinegar

“…The organic compounds in bamboo vinegars may have practical applications even when present in only trace quantities [14,16], such as in improving soil, promoting crops and preventing worm growth, as well as reducing agricultural chemicals, compost odor and sterilization [12]. Recently, bamboo vinegars have been developed that are beneficial for promoting growth of plants to as a plant root growth promoter or a pH value adjuster of cultural media [17][18][19]. It is also effective when used against allergies [20], in healthy drinks [13,21,22], as a virus/fungi/bacterial resistant [16,[23][24][25][26][27] and as an agent of antioxidation, especially for a resistant lipid oxidation effect [15].…”