Improved Seedling Quality of Polybag Plants - Use of Mounted Angle Iron Beds

Abstract

Polybag raised seedlings have many disadvantages viz., root coiling and distortion, scanty lateral root development and frequent shifting operations. To deal with the problem, Mounted Angle Iron (MAI) beds have been designed. Polybags with perforations at the bottom are placed on these beds. The tap root is expected to get exposed through the perforations and air-pruned leading to development of fibrous root system. A trial was carried out to compare the performance of polybag seedlings of Albizia procera S₁, Acacia nilotica S₂, Sesbania grandiflora S₃. And Sesbania sesban S₄., raised on MAI beds with those raised on nursery beds. The observations suggest that the seedlings raised on MAI beds recorded higher fibrous root biomass i.e.I.08g, 0.79g, O.94g and 0.82g per plant as compared to 0.49g, 0.30g, 0.36g and 0.30g of control (nursery bed seedlings) for S₁, S₂, S₃. and S₄. respectively; and number of nodules i.e. 75.3, 20.6, 55.2 and 52.9 as compared to 24.5, 9.3, 25.4 and 11.5 in control for S₁, S₂, S₃. And S₄ respectively. In case of root length, leaf biomass and primary root biomass, the nursery bed raised seedlings recorded higher values for all the four species. No difference was observed in case of seedling height, collar diameter, stem, biomass and total biomass. The improved polybagseedlings production system has enhanced the quality parameters of seedlings i.e. fibrosity and nodulation.