Effects Of Substrate Ratio And Slow-release Fertilizer Application Rate On The Growth And Development Of Prunus Mume Container Seedlings

Mei flower(Prunus mume),belonging to Rosaceae,Prunus Genus,is one of the ten famous traditional flowers in China.It has great ornamental value and is widely used in landscaping.It can not only be cultivated in the open field,but also can be cultivated indoors as potted flowers.Since the flowering period is around the Spring Festival,container culture is also more common.The traditional container cultivation of Prunus mume has some problems,such as high weight,difficult handling and limited export quarantine,which greatly restrict the further development of the container seedlings industry.Light matrix is a mixture of fermented or carbonized agricultural and forestry wastes and light minerals such as peat,perlite,vermiculite,etc.It has the characteristics of light weight,water saving,cleanliness and hygiene.Slow release fertilizer has the advantages of long fertilizer time,simple use and easy operation,and can reduce labor force.Therefore,the combination of light matrix ratio and slow release fertilizer is expected to break the bottleneck of the development of container plantings of Prunus mume.In this study,used the one-year cuttings of P.mune‘Yudie’,‘Lv’e’and‘Meiren’as experimental materials,container cultivation experiments were carried out with peat,vermiculite and coconut bran as substrates and slow-release fertilizer as fertilizers.Through the analysis of physicochemical properties of substrate,morphological indexes and physiological indexes of container plantings of P.mume,the combination of the suitable variety,substrate and slow-release fertilizer were selected.The main results are as follows:(1)9 substrates(T1–T9)composed of peat,coconut bran and vermiculite according to different volume ratios and culture soil(peat:nutritive soil:garden soil,1:1:1)were seleted to container cultivation test.Their physical and chemical properties were determined.The results showed that the bulk density ranged from 0.14-0.17 g/cm~3,and the total porosity varied from 82.18%-88.28%,and could still be used after 2 years;the bulk density of treatment group was significantly lower than that of culture soil(CK),and the contents of total porosity,ventilation porosity and organic matter were significantly higher than that of CK,and the organic matter contents of T6 and T8 were significantly higher than that of CK.(2)Different substrates had significant effects on ground diameter growth,root volume and other growth indexes of container seedlings of‘Yudie’,‘Lv’e’and‘Meiren’.The growth of ground diameter in 2022 is higher than that in 2021,with the fastest growth from March to June.‘Yudie’,and‘Lv’e’grew the most in T9,while‘Meiren’grew the fastest in T6;in terms of root volume,‘Lv’e’was the largest,followed by‘Yudie’and‘Lv’e’;the ground diameter of‘Yudie’in T9,the‘Lv’e’is in T7 and the‘Meiren’in T7 and T8 is big.(3)The physiological indexes of container seedlings of P.mume were significantly affected by different substrates.Among them,‘Yudie’in T9,‘Lv’e’in T7,‘Meiren’in T6and T7 have higher contents of chlorophyll,soluble sugar,soluble protein,peroxidase and superoxide.(4)Different substrate had significant effects on rhizosphere microbial number and enzyme activity of container plantings.The activities of soil catalase,urease and acid phosphatase were higher in‘Yudie’cultivated in T8 and T9,‘Lv’e’in T5,and‘Meiren’in T8.‘Yudie’in T8 and T9,‘Lv’e’in T5 and T7,and‘Meiren’in T5 and T8 had more bacteria,fungi and actinomyces number.(5)The grey system theory correlation analysis was carried out based on the ground diameter,root volume and physiological indexes of container seedlings.The results showed that‘Meiren’was suitable for container plantings,followed by‘Yudie’and‘Lv’e’.‘Yudie’in T9,‘Lv’e’in T6,and‘Meiren’in T9 ranked first,showing a good overall performance.