Comparison of Growth Characteristics Fruit Vegetable Seedlings Grown on Cylindrical Paper Pot Trays of Plug Trays

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the growth characteristics of seedlings of several major fruit vegetables and compare them between plants grown with the conventional plug seedling system (Plug) and those grown with the cylindrical paper pot system (CPP). There were no significant differences in shoot growth characteristics, such as plant height, leaf area, dry weight, and fresh weight, between tomato, cucumber, and watermelon plants grown with the CPP and Plug systems. The total root lengths of tomato and cucumber plants grown with Plug were longer than those grown with CPP at the beginning of seedling growth, and the total root lengths of watermelon grown with Plug were longer than those grown with CPP throughout the whole seedling period. The length of root that separated five steps according to the diameter of the root of tomato did not differ between CPP and Plug, but those of cucumber and watermelon were 20-251% longer with Plug than with CPP for all kinds of roots. The fresh weight of Plug-grown tomato roots was about 30% heavier than that of CPP-grown tomato during the seedling period, but the difference decreased as growth progressed. Finally, there was no difference between plants before and after transplanting. The fresh weights of the Plug-grown plants were about 20-30% heavier than those of CPP-grown ones in terms of the whole seedling. After transplanting to the Wagner pot, the shoot growth of Plug-grown watermelon plants in terms of dry weight was low until 7 days had passed. However, this tendency was reversed from 8 days after transplantation onward. In conclusion, there were no significance differences in the growth of shoots between plants grown with the CPP and Plug systems. However, root development was better with Plug than with CPP. Additional key words : Tomato, Cucumber, Watermelon, Seedling quality, Compactness, Root development