Abstract

SANCHEZ-AGUILAR, Hotón; ALDRETE, Arnulfo; VARGAS-HERNANDEZ, Jesús  and  ORDAZ-CHAPARRO, Víctor. Influence of container type and color on seedling growth of pine in nursery. Agrociencia [online]. 2016, vol.50, n.4, pp.481-492. ISSN 2521-9766.

In a covered root seedling production system, container characteristics are important because they can affect morphology and seedling quality, mainly root characteristics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of container design (with and without lateral drainage) and color (black, transparent and white) on growth and development of Pinus greggii and P. oaxacana seedlings. The experimental design was completely randomized with a factorial array for drainage design and container color. Seedling evaluation assessed morphological variables: stem height and diameter, dry shoot and root weight, number of live roots, shoot/root ratio, and Dickson Quality Index (DQI). For color, significant differences were found in P. greggii stem diameter and in DQI in P. oaxacana; for the factor design, the container without lateral drainage produced taller plants (p= 0.002) with larger stem diameter (p= 0.015), as well as more total biomass (p≤ 0.001) and root volume (p= 0.002) in P. oaxacana. Similar behavior was obtained in P. greggii for these variables, but the container with lateral drainage caused a larger number of live roots in P. greggii (220.3 and 167.2; p= 0.002), and in P. oaxacana (372.8 and 246.5; p= 0.006). This variable is important since it is related to active radical meristems, which give the seedlings a higher probability of successful establishment in different site conditions.

Keywords : Root growth potential; seedling quality; container design; morphological attributes; Pinus greggii; Pinus oaxacana.

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