Survival and growth of Acacia mangium willd. bare-root seedlings after storage and transfer from aeroponic culture to the field

Abstract

Aeroponic culture has been shown to be a promising nursery technique to raise A. mangium and to improve growth rates as well as the level of controlled infection with rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi. This work was designed to determine whether aeroponically grown bare-root seedlings can be stored out of aeroponic troughs, and/or planted to the field without acclimatization in Polybags. After field planting, no significant differences in terms of survival and growth rates were expressed between bare-root seedlings that had been stored in plastic bags for six days or directly transferred to the field, or acclimatized in Polybags. Storage in dark conditions for more than four days significantly affected the survival rates of the seedlings. Aeroponic culture appears to be the method of choice to obtain high quality seedlings, which are much easier to plant and transport compared to those obtained under classical nursery techniques using soil or solid substrate. © INRA, EDP Sciences, 2005.