The effect of transplant age on vegetable growth characteristic in a cylindrical paper pot system

초록

This study aimed to estimate the seedling performance of cylindrical paper pot (CPP) seedlings and to determine the optimaltransplanting age of CPP seedlings based on seedling vigor. The studied vegetables were cucumber, tomato, paprika,and two varieties of cabbage, and the younger seedlings were obtained by shortening their raising period by 10 and 20 dayswith CPP. At the same transplanting age, the size of CPP seedlings was smaller pre-transplant but increased to a similarlevel to the plug seedlings soon after transplanting. The growth curves of leaf area and dry weight of younger CPP seedlingsexhibited a steeper rise trend. The seedling vigor indicators, relative growth rate (RGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), weresignifi cantly increased in younger CPP seedlings of all vegetables, which were 10 or 20 days younger than plug seedlings. Thecompactness (CP) and seedling health index (SHI) of cucumber, and the leaf area ratio (LAR) and specifi c leaf area (SLA) ofcabbage were signifi cantly increased when shortened by 10 and 20 days, while the CP and SHI of paprika were signifi cantlydecreased when shortened by 20 days. Our results suggest that CPP may prevent the seedlings from overstretching and canprovide a wild range of transplanting age choices to produce vigorous seedlings. Further, the seedling vigor indicators weresuccessfully used to determine the transplanting age of CPP seedlings. The optimal transplanting age of CPP seedlingsof tomato, paprika, and cabbage was 10 days younger than plug seedlings, whereas cucumber transplanting age could bedecreased by either 10 or 20 days.

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