Influence of Substrate Composition and Container Size on the Growth of Tissue Culture Propagated Apple Rootstock Plants

Abstract

Substrate composition and container size are considered crucial for apple rootstock grown in a plug seedling system. This study investigated the effect of substrate material’s proportion and different container volumes on the growth of apple rootstock (M-9) plants propagated by tissue culture. In substrate composition, three different ratios of peat moss (PM): vermiculite (VL): perlite (PL) at 1:1:1 (S1), 1:2:3 (S2), 3:1:2 (S3) were used. For container size, plants were grown in 1000 mL (C1), 500 mL (C2), and 300 mL (C3) containers filled by 1:1:1 mixture of PM, VL and PL. In both cases, plants were treated eleven weeks in a green house. Our results demonstrate that the plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, shoot fresh weight and root fresh weight of apple rootstock were significantly higher in substrate composition S3 compared with S1 composition. However, chlorophyll content (SPAD) and photosynthesis rate were unaffected by variation of substrate composition. Furthermore, rootstock grown in C1 container showed plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, number of nodes, root length, shoot and root’s fresh and dry weight were significantly higher than those grown in C2 and C3 volume containers. The chlorophyll content and transpiration rate were not significantly affected by the different container volumes. These results suggest that the substrate ratio 3:1:2 of PM:VL:PL and container size 1000 mL were more favorable than other treatments for initial growth and development of the tissue culture propagated apple rootstock plants.

Morpho-Anatomical and Physiological Assessments of Cryo-Derived Pineapple Plants (Ananas comosus var. comosus) after Acclimatization

“…Furthermore, several studies have shown that small container size can restrict root growth and nutrient uptake, leading to reduced carbohydrate accumulation in leaves and an imbalanced source/sink ratio, which in turn can result in reduced shoot growth [53,54]. Kim et al [55] demonstrated that the biggest-sized container was favorable for plant growth, as it showed higher plant height, leaf number, leaf area, fresh weight and dry weight for the growth of tissue-culture-propagated apple rootstock plants. Therefore, further studies on acclimatization based on industry requirements are needed.…”

Effect of Inorganic Substrates on the Water Quality and Growth of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana in an Aquaponic System

“…Other studies also showed that variations in light availability among different plants influenced their enlargement when grown in soil (Shawon et al, 2021;Kim et al, 2022). Kim et al (2021) showed that the height of apple seedlings was statistically not different when they were grown in a substrate medium with the same light intensity provided. In this study, we used light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting white light and the same light intensity for all treatments under controlled environmental conditions.…”

“…Effect of Inorganic Substrates on the Water Quality and Growth of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana in an Aquaponic System (Bian et al, 2015). Other studies also showed that variations in light availability among different plants influenced their enlargement when grown in soil (Shawon et al, 2021;Kim et al, 2022). Kim et al (2021) showed that the height of apple seedlings was statistically not different when they were grown in a substrate medium with the same light intensity provided.…”

Effect of Shading, Substrate, and Container Size on Argania spinosa Growth and Cost–Benefit Analysis

“…The root architecture is also impacted by the shade. This may be due to the lower thermal conductivity resulting from lower lighting that declines the shaded compartment temperature, then restricts root development [71]. Only the root length trait was higher in the 40%-and 80%-shaded plants compared to 0%.…”