Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2023, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (10): 2364-2377.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20221324

• Horticultural Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of coconut-bran compound substrate on the growth and root characteristics of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings

PENG Dandan1(), CHEN Dagang1, XU Kaiwei1, YOU Haoyu1, YANG Ran1, LIAO Huiping2, CHEN Yuanxue1,*()   

  1. 1. College of Resource, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
    2. Sichuan Huasheng Agricultural Co.,Ltd., Mianzhu 618200, Sichuan, China
  • Received:2022-09-13 Online:2023-10-25 Published:2023-10-31

Abstract:

This study aimed to explore the effect of coconut-bran compound substrate on the growth of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings to find a proper proportions of mixed substrate for soilless cultivation. The Actinidia valvata Dunn seedlings as tested material were grown on 7 compound substrate treatments with the coconut-bran proportions of 100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, 20%, 0 and 33.33% based on peat∶perlite=1∶1 (volume ratio), which were marked as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7 treatment, respectively. The soil from local kiwifruit orchard was used as control (CK). Physicochemical properties of the compound substrates were analyzed and the growth and nutrient content of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings were evaluated comprehensively using principal component analysis. This evaluztion included agronomic traits, chlorophyll SPAD value, biomass, root-shoot ratio, root system characteristics, and nutrient content of seedlings. The results showed that: (1) Compared with CK, the physicochemical properties and the nutrient content of the compound substrate were significantly improved. A lower proportion of coconut bran resulted in higher bulk density and water-holding porosity, and a higher content of total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and available phosphorus. However, total porosity, aeration porosity, void ratio, pH value, EC value, organic matter content and available potassium content were decreased with the reduced proportion of coconut-bran. (2) The growth status and nutrient content of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings were significantly higher than CK, and the plant height, stem diameter, chlorophyll SPAD value in each growth periods, dry matter accumulations, root shoot ratio, total root length, total root surface area and total root volume were firstly increased and then decreased with the reduced proportion of coconut-bran, and they achieved the maximum value when the substrates contained 20% volume proportions of coconut bran (T5 treatment). It was observed that the contents of N, P and K were consistent with the nutrient supply provided by the compound substrate, the highest contents of N and P were found in roots, while the highest K content was in leaves. The comprehensive evaluation on the indices of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings by the principal component analysis showed that the comprehensive ranking with different coconut-bran compound substrate from high to low was T5>T6>T7>T4>T3>T2>T1>CK, the T5 treatment obtained the highest comprehensive evaluation score and exhibited optimal growth condition. (3) The total porosity, water-holding porosity, and the content of total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and available phosphorus of substrate were highly significantly and positively correlated with the growth indexes of seedlings, the bulk density and pH of substrate were highly significantly and negatively correlated with the growth indexes of seedlings. These results indicated that the physicochemical properties of the substrate had great influence on the growth of kiwifruit rootstock seedlings. The addition of appropriate proportion of coconut-bran effectively improved the physicochemical properties of the substrate, promoted the growth of shoot and root, and increased the nutrient content of each part of the seedlings. The substrate formula containing 20% volume proportions of coconut-bran could be considered as an optimal compound substrate for kiwifruit rootstocks.

Key words: substrate, coconut-bran, kiwifruit rootstocks, growth, principal component analysis

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