Since February this year, SenseNL has performed season-long field tests with its CARA MET sensors on MossWool slabs. These slab substrates from Finnish manufacturer Novarbo consist of ecologically harvested sphagnum moss and offer a green alternative to the widely-used stonewool substrates. Waste material can simply be composted together with the remaining plant waste, reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste. SenseNL now offers solutions for measuring in both slabs as well as blocks made of this substrate type.
In the field lab, Novarbo's slabs were set up in different configurations to compare the crop performance. Slab with a 50/50 wood fiber and sphagnum moss ratio were present, as well as slabs with a 75/25 ratio. These were, in turn, set up with and without the packaging foil, resulting in a total of 4 different configurations. Utilizing substrate slabs without packaging is still in an experimental phase, and not a lot of long-term substrate measurements have been performed with this configuration yet. SenseNL was glad to offer its sensors for this test to contribute new insights.
After a period of 4 months, clear trends were already observed. Kevin Oei of SenseNL: "We can clearly see that the average moisture content is higher in the slabs that keep their packaging compared to slabs of the same composition that don't. Especially at the start of the crop cycle, when a relatively larger amount of water exits the slab as drain because there is no packaging to act as a barrier. Evaporation also contributes a lot more to dryback when the slab is fully exposed to the open air. In the long term we do see that the average moisture levels between slabs with and without packaging get close to each other, because the water has had ample time to fully spread throughout the entire slab. This difference in moisture contents and interaction with the slab also influences the concentration of nutrients present in the slab throughout the different crop phases."
Not only the vegetable industry can benefit from MossWool and the new insights that are gained from this and forthcoming field tests. This substrate can also be of interest to cultivators of medical cannabis looking for a durable growing medium, as Novarbo offers its moss substrate not only as slabs but as blocks as well. Its MossCubes are compatible with the Cube type of the CARA MET sensors, which are already being used by numerous medical cannabis cultivation facilities in the north Americas.
For more information:
SenseNL
[email protected]
www.caramet.com