Effects of lignocellulosic growing media to the prevention of forest soil erosion

Abstract

The forest slopes cause substantial local changes in soil properties and an increase in soil erosion after extreme rainstorms. The high soil erosion rates on forest slopes need the effective use of growing media to control the soil runoff. Therefore, we prepared six different lignocellulosic growing media such as peat, perlite, and wood meal as the base materials and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), glucomannan, starch, old corrugated containerboard, and computer printout as the additional materials for the prevention of simulated rainfall-induced runoff. The growing media containing old corrugated containerboard efficiently reduced the percentage of soil runoff; however, it could not completely cushion the influence of crust. The best results for plant growth, except in the leaf area, were also obtained with the growing media containing old corrugated containerboard, suggesting an interesting way of paper recycling and an economic benefit for plant or crop growth in forest slope.