The effects of pot types, micorization and microbial fertilizer application on pecan root-corolla morpho-physiology

The awareness and consumption of pecan fruit has increased in our country in recent years, and accordingly, there has been an increase in the production area. It is important to use healthy saplings, which are certified to be used and evaluated as strong while establishing a garden for a good future in agriculture. The biggest problem in the production of saplings for pecan is the low root development and the lack of lateral roots. The biggest vegetative feature of the pecan is that has a taproot and a weak lateral root formation. This taproot is seen as a disadvantage for the production of disease-free and virus-free saplings in production. Recently, saplings are producing in a limitedly and on the open areas in our country. The biggest disadvantage of traditional open field production method creates the necessity of planting in a limited time when establishing a garden. Advantages of pot production compared to open filed production is improving root development, ready to planting in every season etc. Based on the previous studies on sapling production, the usage of air pruned pots is accepted as one of the situations that will benefit root development. Our aim in this study is to increase the lateral root efficiency by providing the development in the root morphology of the pecan in a good way and to make pot production possible. In this case, in addition to the use of air pruned pots, microbial fertilizer and mycorrhizae alone or in combination will be applied. The applications made it possible to investigate not only the root morphology but also the effects on the plant root-corolla morpho-physiology. Projects and applications were carried out in the greenhouses of Akdeniz University Faculty of Agriculture between January-October 2020. Wichita variety belonging to the pecan species was used as plant material. Although it changes according to the periods and the applied conditions in the research, 100 ml microbial fertilizer-1, 100 ml microbial fertilizer-2 to be given together with the soilless plant nutrition formulation were applied to the roots. As a mycorrhiza, 100 ml of mycorrhiza solution known as truffle was applied. In addition, 50 ml of mycorrhiza + 50 ml of microbial fertilizer-1 was applied to the plants by combining mycorrhiza and microbial fertilizer. The experiment was arranged according to the randomized plot design, with three replications and 5 saplings in each replication. A mixture of peat, perlite and vermiculite at a ratio of 2:1:1 was used in the pot. Evaluations were activated after the start of the first cotyledon leaf emergence and continued through the growing period (October) from the start of the developmental period (June). In the research; plant height, plant diameter, leaf area index, fresh and dry weights of roots, stems and leaves of saplings were planned as parameters to be studied. According to the results of the experiment, soilless fertigation applications showed a more successful growth performance in both standard pots and air pruned pots compared to the production in traditional open field farmer conditions, and additional Mycorrhiza application carried this success much higher. Only microbial fertilizer and mycorrhiza applications alone did not give the expected effect. According to the data obtained at the end of the measurements, Microbial fertilizer-1 + Mycorrhiza (VT) application not only promoted the elongation of the plant (44cm), but also increased the number of leaves and increased the number of lateral roots in the root zone, making a positive impact in line with the aims of the project. These results indicate that there is a direct ratio (positive relationship) between mycorrhizal colonization and microbial fertilizer-1.