ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
cover
Estonian Journal of Ecology
Properties and behaviour of starch and rapeseed cake based composites in horticultural applications; pp. 15–27
PDF | doi: 10.3176/eco.2014.1.02

Authors
Jolanta Treinyte, Violeta Grazuleviciene, Danguole Bridziuviene, Jurgita Svediene
Abstract

The application of composites consisting of starch, rapeseed cake, crude glycerol, and urea for the fabrication of disposable biodegradable nursery pots is estimated. Mechanical properties of composite films, their hygroscopicity, solubility in water, and water vapour transmission rate were studied. The evaporation of water rate from the plant pots prepared from the composites was found to be twice lower than that observed for the commercial peat plant pots. The fluctuations of the soil temperature were also lower than in the commercial peat pots. The average time of the bio­degradation of the composites was about one month. The rate of biodegradation depended on the species of microorganisms and on their physiological properties.

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