Articles
An approach to determine pepper seedling quality grown in cylindrical paper pots
Article number
1273_43
Pages
329 – 336
Language
English
Abstract
Vegetable seedling production technology using the cylindrical paper pot has been recently adopted in a large Korean nursery since its introduction from Ellegaard company, Denmark in 2014. This study was conducted to find out the range of good quality pepper seedlings grown in cylindrical paper pot through the investigation of growth traits, seedling quality index and short-term relative growth rate (RGR) after transplanting in a glass house.
Three pepper cultivars were sown in cylindrical paper pots (volume 53 mL) having 50 cells of plug tray filled with peat-based bed soil and treated with three different concentrations of a standard base nutrient solution (EC 1.5±1 dS m‑1, N-P-K-Ca-Mg-S = 8.0-2.4-2.4-4.8-1.6-1.6 me L‑1). Seedling growth traits were measured at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 days after sowing (DAS). At each sampling age, seedlings were transplanted in 15-cm diameter plastic pots for short-term RGR investigation as affected by night temperatures targeting at 10, 15 and 25°C. The results showed that compactness and Dickson quality index (DQI) were increased with the increase of seedling age from 30 to 70 days and with a fertigation strength from 0.5 to 2.0 S. RGR was decreased with the increase of seedling age and was higher at 0.5 and 1.0 S fertigation treatments than 2.0 S. The linear regression analysis between DQI and RGR by fertigation treatments showed that the 2.0 S had the lowest value in slope decline.
The range to determine a good quality pepper seedling grown in cylindrical paper pot in conventional nursery season in Korea could be determined by evaluating specific growth traits and through the analysis of the relationship between DQI and short-term RGR.
Three pepper cultivars were sown in cylindrical paper pots (volume 53 mL) having 50 cells of plug tray filled with peat-based bed soil and treated with three different concentrations of a standard base nutrient solution (EC 1.5±1 dS m‑1, N-P-K-Ca-Mg-S = 8.0-2.4-2.4-4.8-1.6-1.6 me L‑1). Seedling growth traits were measured at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 days after sowing (DAS). At each sampling age, seedlings were transplanted in 15-cm diameter plastic pots for short-term RGR investigation as affected by night temperatures targeting at 10, 15 and 25°C. The results showed that compactness and Dickson quality index (DQI) were increased with the increase of seedling age from 30 to 70 days and with a fertigation strength from 0.5 to 2.0 S. RGR was decreased with the increase of seedling age and was higher at 0.5 and 1.0 S fertigation treatments than 2.0 S. The linear regression analysis between DQI and RGR by fertigation treatments showed that the 2.0 S had the lowest value in slope decline.
The range to determine a good quality pepper seedling grown in cylindrical paper pot in conventional nursery season in Korea could be determined by evaluating specific growth traits and through the analysis of the relationship between DQI and short-term RGR.
Authors
T.C. Seo, S.W. An, C.W. Nam, H. Chun
Keywords
Dickson quality index, compactness, TR ratio, criteria, optimum, transplant
Groups involved
- Division Greenhouse and Indoor Production Horticulture
- Working Group Hydroponics and Aquaponics
- Working Group Growing Media
- Working Group Substrate Analysis
- Commission Agroecology and Organic Farming Systems
- Division Vegetables, Roots and Tubers
- Working Group Crop Establishment, Seed and Transplant Technology
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