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.
Mikania micrantha charcoal (MMC) microelement Cultural media pH value Seedling index
Ying-Pin Huang Chia-Wen Peng Yi-Han Huang Ting-Ru Tsai Wei-Ru Kuo Hen-Chien Lin
ITRI South, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Rm. 611 , No. 8, Gongyan Rd., Liujia Shiang,Ta Graduate School of Agriculture, National Chiayi University (NCYU), No.300, Syuefu Rd., ChiayiCity 60 Department of Forest Product Science and Furniture Engineering, National Chiayi University(NCYU), No Department of Horticultural Science, National Chiayi University (NCYU), No.300, Syuefu Rd.,Chiayi Ci Department of Forest Product Science and Furniture Engineering, National Chiayi University (NCYU), N