Agronomy journal, Vol. 67 No. 2-4, 2005.
Conference paper
Role of supstrate preparation in nursery production
Lepomir Čoga
Mirjana Herak Ćustić
Tomislav Ćosić
Ines Vršek
Ivan Pavlović
Vesna Jurkić
Milan Poljak
Lidija Potočić
Marko Petek
Abstract
There is an increasing demand for new and good-quality species of ornamental plants. In practice so far, however, insufficient attention has been paid to provision of favourable growing conditions, production technology, and market demands. This especially applies to the preparation of good growing substrates, which differs for different plant species and different stages of plant growth and development. It was generally thought that the substrate problem could be solved in the course of production by the application of organic and mineral fertilizers. Such practice resulted in unfavourable physical properties (compactness, poor water permeability and low air capacity) and/or poor chemical properties of soil (unfavourable pH reaction, inadequate nutrient availability, high salt levels and a high amount of physiologically active lime). To determine the influence of soil preparation on plant growth and development, numerous investigations were conducted in nurseries and at a number of localities where problems were encountered in the production of ornamental plants. For this purpose, average samples of soil and plant material (Chamaecyparis sp. and Thuja sp.) were taken from the nurseries Markuševac and Jankomir, owned by the company Zrinjevac d.o.o., the nursery Krnjić d.d. at Popovača, and from the main square and the park in Koprivnica, the islands of Pag, Vir, Prvić, as well as from Trsat and several locations in the cities of Zadar and Zagreb. The common characteristic of all the analyzed soils are their unfavourable physical and/or chemical properties, resulting in poorer growth and development of plants, and in extreme cases in plant drying. To prevent such undesirable effects in the future, the authors propose analysis of soil physical and chemical properties as the first step in setting up nurseries or plant production at a permanent location.
Keywords
soil physical and chemical properties; nurseries and parks
Hrčak ID:
2243
URI
Publication date:
10.5.2005.
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