Increase in willow vegetative weight depends on varietal characteristics and the period of planting material collection

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on the growth of the ground mass of willow depending on varietal characteristics, the time of harvesting the planting material and the use of MaxiMarin absorbent gel. Methods. Field, measuring, mathematical and statistical. The results. The research was conducted with two types of willow, the Panfilska variety and the Zb-ruch rodshaped variety, at the experimental field of the Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet during 2019–2022. It was found that the use of MaxiMarin absorbent gel for planting willow shoots harvested both in autumn and in spring did not ensure increasing their survivability. Survival of shoots harvested in autumn was significantly higher than those harvested in spring, regardless of varietal characteristics. No significant increase in biometric parameters – plant height, shoot thickness, and number of stems – was found, depending on the time of harvesting the planting material and the use of the absorbent gel. The use of absorbent gel for planting shoots harvested in the fall of the Zbruch variety ensured a reliable increase in stems, compared to both the control – without gel, and the harvesting of planting material in the spring of both varieties. In the first year of vegetation, on an average of three years, there was a tendency to increase the growth of the willow height and the thickness of the stems of the rodshaped variety Zbruch, compared to the three-stemmed willow of the Panfilska variety, and in the last recording dates, on the contrary, the growth of the height and thickness of the stems of the Panfilska variety was greater than that of the Zbruch variety regardless of the period of harvesting shoots. The intensity of growth of the vegetative mass of the willow depends on what the yield of planting material – cuttings or shoots depends on – both its height and the diameter of the stems and their number. The height of the plants and the thickness of the willow stems in dynamics depended on varietal characteristics. Growth of vegetative mass was more intense in rod-shaped willow of the Zbruch variety than in the threestamen variety of Panfilska. The use of MaxiMarin absorbent gel for planting willow shoots, which were harvested both in autumn and in spring, did not increase their survival rate. Key words: variety, shoots, cuttings, height, diameter of plants, number of stems.