Abstract: The effects of five substitutes on ten agronomic traits of container-seedlings of olive including survival rate, number of new produced root, plant height, stem base diameter, root length, number of new shoots, fresh and dry weight of above-ground and underground parts of plant, dickson quality index(DQI) of olive were evaluated under plastic greenhouse condition. The results showed that the combination of soil and coconut coir dust with 3∶1 ratio was the ideal substrate for annual container-seedlings of olive, favorable for the growth of shoots, roots as well as leaves of the young seedlings. Seedlings grown in the substrate had higher survival rate and better DQI, while the pure coco chip was very unfavorable for olive seedling growth due to its strong acidity, suggesting that it was not suitable for use as a substrate. Under the substrate (the combination of soil and coconut coir dust with 3∶1 ratio), the annual olive seedling could grow up to 76.2 cm in height, 6.25 mm in the stem base diameter, and 5.27 new shoots in plastic green house, which was accorded with the seedling standard of the stage. Moreover, the seedling height grew fast in spring and fall, and slow in summer and winter. The stem base diameter thickening showed relatively fast in early and late periods, relatively slow in middle period. Shoot began to accelerate the pumping speed in the autumn when the seedling height reached a certain level. In addition, the effectiveness of parameters related to quality evaluation of olive container-seedlings was also discussed in the paper.

Key words: olive (Olea europaea L.), container-seedling, substrate, growth characteristics