Table 1.
Proportions (% by volume) of each component in the designed growing media.
Table 2.
Physico-chemical and physical properties of the growing media.
Table 3.
Models obtained with the significance level and statistical parameters for the determined parameters in the growing media and in the seedlings of tomato, melon and lettuce.
Fig 1.
Triangular surface response for several physico-chemical (a and b) and physical (c and d) parameters in the substrates elaborated.
(a) pH. (b) EC: electrical conductivity. (c) bulk density. (d) air volume.
Table 4.
Comparative effects of the different growing media used on the morphological parameters and aerial biomass production for melon, tomato and lettuce seedlings.
Fig 2.
Desirability functions considering the substrates elaborated for the vegetal species (a—c) and for all the vegetal species studied (d).
The flag reports the highest prediction level of the optimal transplants performance and the corresponding proportions of each component. Green colour in the surface represents the area in which the optimal transplants characteristics are obtained. (a) Tomato. (b) Melon. (c) Lettuce. (d) All the vegetal species studied.