Analysis of Tension and Compression Load of Biodegradable Organic Pots during Process of Growing Plants in Control Greenhouse = Analysis of Tension and Compression Load of Biodegradable Organic Pots during Process of Growing Plants in Control Greenhouse

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Transplanting is the technique of removing a plant from a place where it has been grown to another place. In the process of transplanting biodegradable pots can be damaged and there is high risk of damaging plant’s root. The objective of our study was to estimate the strength of biodegradable organic pots (Tension and Compression load) in the process of growing plants in control greenhouse. The experiment was conducted in greenhouse of Gyeongsang national university. Total 120 biodegradable paper pulp trays were used in experiment. All trays were filled up with commercial compost and Pepper seeds were planted in total of 60 biodegradable paper pulps trays while other 60 trays were remained with no seeds. Water spray were supplied 5 min/day and temperature were maintained between “20-30” degrees C inside greenhouse which is recommended for growing pepper seeds. We did analysis on weekly basis by taking 9 samples from each tray (with seeds and non seeds) and checked the strength of biodegradable pots after removing the compost and plant. EZ 20 material testing machine were used for tension and compression test of individual pots and also for sides of each pots by cutting it in (3x2 mm) rectangular shape. Also we checked the moisture content of individual pots of biodegradable trays by using dry oven. The initial average maximum tension load of pots were 71.083 N in 3.08 sec and average maximum compression load of pots were 78.6 N in 14.06 sec. For sides of pots the initial average maximum tension load were 198.6 N in 4.38 sec and average maximum compression load were 59.7 N in 3.0 sec. The results showed that water content and long roots of pepper can have significantly effect on biodegradable pots. Although there were no significant difference observed before roots reached to sides of pots. In conclusion, water content and roots elongation have significant effect on biodegradable organic pots so there is need to improve materials of biodegradable pots while using in transplanting machine.