Agriculture Knowledge Fresh Produce From Israel Plant Propagation

Combating Ruscus (Ruscus hypophyllum) Deterioration Using Isolated Media

5 minutes read

Yaakov Gottlieb*, yacgot@shaham.moag.gov.il
Participants :Yair Tamari, Tamar Lahav, Eric Orlov, Yevgeni Kozidoi, Alla Gomberg, Doron
Chaviv, Shachar Chaviv, Shosh Weizmann.

Intoduction
Growing Ruscus in Israel occupies an important place in local floriculture. Most of its crop is
intended for export to European markets.
In many Ruscus plots, there exist ‘weak’ areas, which spread with time. In studies made in the past
(years 1995, 2011),it was found out that the main source of this phenomenon is the ‘free’spiral
nematode Rotylenchus buxopilus. While feeding, the nematode gnaws the plant’s roots, thus
enabling the penetration of various rotting fungi into the plant’s roots, thus causing a complete
deterioration of the root system.It then becomes possible to pull out almost freely the plant from the
soil. In observations carried out by Doron Chaviv, a grower from KfarVitkin, it was shown that it is
possible to grow Ruscus in an optimal manner, inusing a ‘Perlite’ medium, packed in sacs of
geotechnical fabric.It was also shown that although the geotechnical fabric is not hermetically
sealed, there was no penetration of nematodes from the soil, which was highly-infested, into the
sacs, where most of the roots were concentrated.

Following this important finding, it was decided to carry out an ordered examination of Ruscus
cultivation in various media, placed on geotechnical fabric or inside it. The examination’s aim was
to build a model plot, where various media and their effects on Ruscus cultivation will be carried
out, but most important, to examine the possibility of cultivating Ruscus in using the technique
called ‘Cultivation in Isolated Media’, namely, plant cultivation free of the presence of nematodes.
Experiment Preparation.

Five different media types were examined. All five are presented in Table 1. The Ruscus plants
were taken from a plot free of nematodes (Kfar Haroeh, Hsharon region). The plants were planted in
experimentalplots in March, 2019. They were irrigated and fertilized under the supervision of the
agronomist Eric Orlov.

Table 1. The Ruscus plants were taken from a plot free of nematodes (Kfar Haroeh, Hsharon region)

During spring and summer seasons, the plants were irrigated once a day or two days. In winter the
plants were irrigated once in two or three days. A drip irrigation (dripper capacity of 1.6
litres/hour) was used to water the plants. The plants were fertilized by commercial fertilizers which
included all essential macro- and micro- elements. Irrigation and fertilization monitoring was
carried out by collecting the dripper irrigation water into a container and comparing the electrical
conductivity (EC) and the nitrogenous compounds in the water collected to the EC and nitrogenous
compounds of the media water collected fromthe root system environment.
A summation of nematode infestation is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 : A summation of nematode infestation

During the experiment years, three examinations were conducted with the aim of verifying the
presence of nematodes. In two of the control plots, one which received irrigation and fertilization as
the experimental plot and one which received irrigation and fertilization as the commercial
plot, a medium and a high nematode infestation was found. In plots where plants grew on an
isolated medium (vulcanized ash) and also on Perlite sleeves, few nematodes were found. The plot
made up of deep soil (‘deep soil’ treatment), contained a low number of nematodes, but during 2023,
the plot started to show signs of deterioration, and, in fact, an examination carried out during March
2023, showed a rather high number of nematodes (ca. 80 nematodes). The plot where no nematodes
were found was the one where Ruscus was grown on ‘spread Perlite’.

In the first harvest of Ruscus branches, there was a significant difference between the different
media. The best medium was the ‘spread Perlite’; Following, was the ‘deep soil’ treatment, with the
addition of compost;Following, the vulcanized ash treatment. The cultivation inside Perlite
sleeves did not differ significantly from the control treatment, and in all three of them the yield was
low (ca. 50%-30% of the yield attained with the ‘spread Perlite’ treatment).

At the second harvest, the best results were attained from the ‘spread Perlite’ treatment and from the
‘vulcanized ash’ treatment. A significantly lower level of yield was attained in two treatments : the
‘deep soil’ cultivation treatment and in the ‘Perlite sleeves’ cultivation treatment. In both ‘control’
treatments, the yield was significantly lower than in all the other treatments.
The Ruscus yield’s quality was measured according to the branches’ length. The branches were
selected and counted according to their lengths : 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 centimeters. and higher.

number of ruscus branches

Figure 2 : number of ruscus branches (thousands) per dunam in each of the two harvests.
Discussion and conclusions

At the end of four and a half years following the installation of the experiment, it is possible to sum
it and to note a few important points :
1. In most plots where the Ruscus plants grew on geotechnical fabric and artificial media
(e.g., vulcanized ash and spread Perlite), in all examinations carried out, almost no nematodes were
found, a fact which led us to believe, in the beginning, that the cause for this is the physical barrier,
namely, the spiral nematodes (Rotylenchus and Hemicycliphora) , which are longer and wider than
the gall-producing nematodes, find it difficult to pass from the soil to the medium and from there
to the roots. We assume that the explanation for the absence of nematodes in the Perlite and the
vulcanized ash media, lies in the texture of these media.
2. In the perlite and the vulcanized ash, the yields attained were higher in comparison to the control
of the experiment, but also in comparison to other high-yielding plots of local soil, namely, beyond
the contribution attained as a result of a lack of nematodes.
3. Cultivation of Ruscus on a ‘spread Perlite’ medium on the geotechnical fabric, excelled in the
current experiment, in the sense that there were no nematodes found in all three examinations and
in the high yields attained, e.g., more than 200,000 branches per dunam, whereas the national mean
(average) yield is 100,000 branches per dunam.
4. It is important to note that Ruscus cultivation in Israel has been, for many years, concentrated
mainly in the Sharon zone. The viability and profitability of these plots has dropped during the long
years of cultivation, some of the reasons for this drop being the presence of the spiral nematodes in
the soil. Because of a low inventory of available soils for cultivation of Ruscus, the only feasible
option for the Ruscus grower is the operation of replanting. It is possible to grow Ruscus in a
completely soilless media (in cases), but we think that there is an advantage in growing Ruscus in
isolated media, in comparison to soilless culture.
In this experiment, we have shown that there is a better alternative to cultivating Ruscus in soil: it
is growing Ruscus on Perlite placed on geotechnical fabric (‘spread Perlite’).