Utilisation of Green Manures as Organic Substrates in Soilless Culture: A Review

Green manuring with inclusion of legumes is the most feasible option to fix atmospheric nitrogen up to 80-100 kg of nitrogen in 45-60 days. They are easily decomposable improving soil organic carbon, nutrient availability, physicochemical and biological properties of soil, and crop productivity and hence can be used as a substrate in the form of dry powder in soilless culture. The scope of utilizing organic materials for crop production remains viable in recent years particularly in containerized crop production. Soilless culture as a crop production system could solve global issues such as the shortage of water, environmental pollution and instability of ecological system in various ways providing optimum environmental medium for crop growth in order to gain maximum yield and high quality products. Henceforth, less land area is required for agriculture production system resulting in increased land productivity. With this background, this review projects to maximize the utilization of the properties of green manures as an alternative grow-media substrate in the emerging soilless cultivation system.