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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2018, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (34): 47-54.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb18070039

Special Issue: 生物技术 园艺

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Effects of Substrates on Growth and Leaf Physiological Characteristics of Young Apple Trees

  

  • Received:2018-07-10 Revised:2018-08-15 Accepted:2018-08-24 Online:2018-12-16 Published:2018-12-16

Abstract: This study aims to screen out the suitable substrate formulations for cultivating young apple trees. Taking 2-year-old Fuji bud seedlings as test materials, and corn straws, orchard soil, peat soil, perlite and cow dung as substrate materials, effects of different substrate formulations on the growth, biomass, root morphological characteristics and leaf physiological characteristics of young apple trees were studied. Results showed that T3 (orchard soil: peat soil: cow dung: perlite=2:3:1:1) and T4 (orchard soil: corn straw: cow dung: perlite=2:3:1:1) were the optimal substrates with ideally physical and chemical properties, the indexes including growth of young apple trees (seedling height, stem diameter, shoot length, shoot diameter, dry matter weight above ground), root development (total root length, root surface area, root volume, number of tips) and physiological characteristics of leaves (net photosynthetic rate , transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and intercellular CO2 concentration) were all higher than those of the control, while the root-shoot ratio and the average diameter of root was significantly lower than those of the control. Therefore, thoroughly decomposed corn straws could completely replace peat soil in the application of container cultivation of young apple trees, and T4 substrate could be promoted as an excellent matrix for cultivation of big apple seedlings in containers.

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