The effects of microorganism applications on development of pecan (Carya illinoinensis Kosch.) seedlings

Pecan is a hard-shelled fruit species with high economic potential. Although it is entered our country many years ago, it has not yet become widespread enough. The biggest reasons for this are; the long production period of saplings, the difficulty in accessing reliable and properly grafted saplings in the private sector and the limited production of saplings in the public sector. The most common method of sapling production is grafting the desired varieties on the rootstock. One of the most important bottlenecks is that the time it takes for the seedlings to be grafted is quite long. There are also limited studies in the world on shortening the time to inoculation. It is thought that microorganism activities, which have positive effects on plant development, can be shorten the development of the seedling. Based on this hypothesis, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of some biological preparations on the acceleration of the development of the shoots in pecan. For this purpose, seeds of Wichita variety were used as plant material. Proex®, a commercial product as biological preparation, Truffle mushroom and EndoRoots Soluble® as mycorrhiza were tried and then top pruning was applied. Within the scope of the study, after the germination of the seeds, a total of 4 treatments were made as control, Proex® (50 ml per 1 l water), Truffle (10 g per 1 l water), EndoRoots Soluble® (1 g per 1 l water) and 50 ml was given to each pot. A mixture of peat, perlite and vermiculite at a ratio of 2:1:1 was used as medium. After the transfer of the seedlings to the pots, the applications were made once every 15 days for 4 weeks. After the biological preparation application, half of the plants were top pruned in all treatments. After the treatments, stem diameter, stem length, number of leaves, wet and dry weights of underground organs, chlorophyll index were measured and data were obtained. In the experiment, different biological preparations and top pruning treatments showed a successful development in the growth and development parameters of the seedlings. Proex® was the most effective biological preparation in terms of stem diameter in the inoculation time of the shoots, while the top cut increased the growth in all treatments and the most successful result was obtained from the top cut after Proex® application. Truffle and EndoRoots Soluble® used as mycorrhiza were not as effective as Proex®. Proex® treatment gave the most successful results in stem diameter, chlorophyll and plant height measurements. Proex® increased cumulative plant height by 49.3%. In root fresh weight and fringe root dry weight, EndoRoots Soluble® gave the highest value.