Container Medium and Nitrogen Form Affect Production of Amur Maackia (Maackia amurensis Rupr. & Maxim.)

Abstract

Amur maackia (Maackia amurensis Rupr. & Maxim.) has potential as a more widely grown nursery crop, but little information is available on effects of media and nutrition on growth of containerized plants. We compared growth of seedlings in five media and determined growth responses to two fertility regimes. After 35 days, total dry mass of plants grown in 1 perlite: 1 vermiculite (by volume) or in 5 sphagnum peat: 3 perlite: 2 soil was 3.2 times the dry mass of plants grown in three soilless media that contained composted bark; and after 70 days, growth was greater in the medium with soil than in 1 perlite: 1 vermiculite. Plants grown in solution culture with N at 0.75 mm had 1.8 times the dry mass of those provided N at 3.75 mm. Form of N in solution did not affect dry mass, but N content of leaves of plants grown with >50% \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\) \end{document} was 1.3 times as great as that of plants provided only \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-}\) \end{document}. Plants in containers attained maximal dry mass when fertilized with solutions containing N at 10.8 mm from \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-}\) \end{document}, \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\) \end{document}, and urea or N at 7.5 mm with equal amounts of \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-}\) \end{document} and \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\) \end{document}. None of the soilless media used consistently evoked growth similar to growth of plants in the soil-based medium.