ABR Vol 4 [2] June 2013 89 | P age © 2013 Society of Education, India Advances in Bioresearch Adv. Biores., Vol4 (2) June 2013: 89- 94 ©2013 Society of Education, India Print ISSN 0976-4585; Online ISSN 2277-1573 Journal’s URL:http://www.soeagra.com/abr/abr.htm CODEN: ABRDC3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Growing of Salt Tolerant Vegetables in an Experimental Compost in Greenhouse José Venegas González, Martha Alicia Velázquez Machuca and José Luis Montañez Soto Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CIIDIR MICHOACÁN). Justo Sierra 28, CP 59510, Col Centro, Jiquilpan, Michoacán, México. E-mail: jvenegasg@ipn.mx ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to know the salinity tolerant vegetables response to a compostusing the broccoli (Brassica oleracea) as a response crop. The compost was prepared using, sugar cane by-product,rice husk, cow manure, coconut fiber dust phosphate rock and yeast mixture. The compost (S1) was mixed with other ingredients to generate 7 treatments.A greenhouse experiment was established under a completely randomized statistical design, broccoli Claudia variety was used as a compost quality indicator crop. The composthad high nutrients content, except Cu. pH and salt content were high and theP content was extremely high. The yield data was applied to analysis of variance and a Tukey0.05 test. The yields were affected by treatments: T6 (S1 + chemical fertilizer) and T2 (S1 + fish meal) treatments had higher yields (52.8 and 48.4 g plant -1 respectively), while T1 (S1) and T5 (S1 + mycorrhiza+ Azospirillum sp.) treatments yielded 38.7 and 40.7 g plant -1 respectively. Plants with mycorrhiza absorbed the largest amounts of phosphorus (0.081%), indicating that somehow the mycorrhiza interacts with broccoli roots. The plants grown in T5 (S1 + mycorrhiza + Azospirillum sp.) treatment showed the highest foliar nitrogen contents (2.55%) but inhibited phosphorus and others nutrients absorption. Key words: compost, mycorrhiza, Azospirillum, coconut fiber, broccoli crop, phosphorus uptake Received: 09/04/2013 Accepted: 12/05/2013 © 2013 Society of Education, India INTRODUCTION A substrate is a solid material which put it in a container provides a suitable rhizosphere for the plant roots anchorage and is a source of nutrients enough to meeting up the crop demands, in addition, it slows the control of the nutrients in the plant rhizosphere and water management [21]. From here the importance of its physical and chemical characterization,especially when it is a system component with gradual degradation and plant nutrients continua source [1]. The application of substrates based on organic solid wastes such as coconut fiber, animal wastes, rice husk or sugar cane rum as a soil amendment, improves the physical and chemical soil properties such as soil structure, organic matter content, cation exchange capacity; in addition it increase the crop yields and reduce the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers to crop production; it constitute an alternative strategy in the exploitation of agricultural production systems to mitigate the climatic change [12, 13]. Coconut fiber is the palm fruit fibrous skin, it is a by-product arising from processing of the palm fruit; it has physical properties suitable for preparing alternative substrates with high stability and great water holding capacity, low bulk density, high content of available water and nutrients for plant development [21] increases the ion transport mechanisms between the soil and the plant and therefore the cation exchange capacity and soil damping properties, promotes the nutrients conversion to available forms [3]. The coconut fiber dust has favorable physical properties for preparing substrates for growing different horticultural species, because it has high water holding capacity (50-81%), total porosity greater than 92%, low bulk density (0.08 to 0.12 gcm -3 ) and low true density (1.48-1.49 gcm -3 ) [21]. The substrates derived from this material have good conditions for growing of various horticultural species [15] in addition they can be used for the species propagation of both agricultural and medical interest [11]. The Azotobacter, Azospirillum and Rhizobium bacteria have had positive effects on the seed germination, plant development as well as the N and P assimilation on some crop tissues such as pepper (Capsicum annum) and corn (Zea mays). In addition, a bacteria strain Azospirillum increased the contents of N and P in corn tissues (17). The co-inoculation bacteria-mycorrhizal and fungi such as Azospirillum brasilense - Glomus intraradix has synergistic effects on fixation and uptake of N and P in plants [22,9,4]. A A A B B B R R R