Morphological attributes of oriental spruce [ Picea orientalis (L.) Link.] seedlings grown in peat-based media amended with natural zeolite

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the influence of growth media consisting of different components on the morphological attributes of oriental spruce seedlings. Eighteen different combinations of Barma peat (BP), tea residue compost (CTR), fine pumice (FP), coarse pumice (CP), perlite (P) and zeolite (Z) were prepared as growth media.The growth medium components did not significantly affect the shoot height (SH), root collar diameter (RCD), shoot:root ratio or dry root percentage (DRP) of 2-year-old seedlings. However, the root dry weight (RDW) and shoot dry weight (SDW) showed significant differences between the different growth media. The maximum SDW (3.244 g) was determined for a mixture of BP (0.5) + CTR (0.2) + CP (0.2) + Z (0.1), while a mixture of BP (0.6) + P (0.2) + Z (0.2) resulted in minimum SDW (1.593 g). In addition, the maximum RDW (1.824 g) was determined for the BP (0.5) + CTR (0.2) + CP (0.2) + Z (0.1) medium, while the BP (0.6) + CP (0.2) + Z (0.2) medium resulted in the lowest RDW (1.013 g). The addition of zeolite to the growth media increased the SDW and RDW of oriental spruce seedlings, so natural zeolite could be used as a substrate to replace pumice and perlite in nurseries in Turkey. Since Turkey has 45.8 billion tonnes of zeolite, its use in nurseries could reduce the costs significantly.