Abstract
There is an increasing trend of producing seedlings of Panax ginseng in amended root media in raised beds. Precise control of the fertility of root media is essential for raising healthy seedlings, especially when inert media with a low buffering capacity are used. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of fertility (as measured by EC) of the nutrient solution used for seedling production. One thousand eight hundred seeds were sown for five treatments and a control (300 seeds per treatment, 3 × 3 cm spacing) using root medium [composed of peat moss + perlite (7:3, v/v)] on raised beds with measurements, 120 × 60 × 25 cm (L × W × H) on Mar 9, 2018. Five nutrient solutions with different strengths (0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 dS m−1 EC) were prepared with ground water (0.25 dS m−1) and a fertilizer stock solution (2 mM NH4+-N, 12 mM NO3−-N, 1 mM H2PO4−, 8 mM K+, 2 mM Ca2+, 1 mM Mg2+, 1 mM SO42−). Fertigation of the beds started on May 21 using each of six nutrient solutions and fertigation frequencies were controlled using an EC5 soil moisture sensor. The stock solutions were automatically supplied for 30 min when the volumetric water content decreased to 36%. Plant growth measurement and soil analyses were carried out twice: first at 144 days and subsequently at 197 days (from the day of seeds sown). For the first growth measurement, elevated EC in the fertilizer solution resulted in enhanced growth, but statistical differences among treatment solutions were not significant except for the case of ground water. In the second measurement, the seedling growth in terms of dry weight of above- and below-ground plant parts increased significantly in plants treated with the 1.0 dS m−1 EC solution and decreased in plants treated with the (1.2 dS m−1 EC) solution. In both the first and second measurements, the ground tissue nutrient content (T-N, P, K and Ca) was significantly different among treatments. The EC of root media in the case of 1.0 dS m−1 treatment, where the seedling growth was the highest among treatments, was 0.54 dS m−1 at the first measurement and 0.82 dS m−1 at the second measurement. In summary, a root medium with a mixture of peat moss + perlite (7:3, v/v), a leaching percentage of 20–30%, and a nutrient solution with a concentration of 1.0 dS m−1 EC is suitable for the healthy growth of ginseng seedlings.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
References
Choi JM, Lee CW, Chun JP (2012) Optimization of substrate formulation and mineral nutrition during the production of vegetable seedling grafts. Hortic Environ Biotechnol 53:212–221
Jang IB, Lee DY, Yu J, Park HW, Mo HS, Park KC, Hyun DY, Lee EH, Kim KH, Oh CS (2015) Photosynthesis rates, growth, and ginsenoside contents of 2-yr-old Panax ginseng grown at different light transmission rates in a greenhouse. J Ginseng Res 39:345–353
Jones JB (2005) Hydroponics: a practical guide for the soilless-grower. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Marschner P (2012) Mineral nutrition of higher plants. Elsevier, New York
Matsuno A (1990) The guide book of rockwool culture-retarding culture of tomato plant. The National Agricultural Cooperative Union, Tokyo, pp 33–41
Nelson PV (2013) Greenhouse operation and management, 7th edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River
Nelson PV, Hwang JS, Fonteno WC, Bailey DA (1996) Fertilizing for perfect plugs. In: Hamrick D (ed) Grower talks on plugs II. Ball Publishing, Batavia, pp 86–89
Nemali KS, van Iersel MW (2008) Physiological responses to different substrate water contents: screening for high water-use efficiency in bedding plants. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 133:333–340
Park ST, Jung GH, Yoo HJ, Choi EY, Choi KY, Lee YB (2014) Measuring water content characteristics by using frequency domain reflectometry sensor in coconut coir substrate. Protected Hortic Plant Fac 23:158–166
Park SS, Park SY, Kim JY, Chung SO, Choi JM (2015) Controlling of substrate water content using FDR sensor influenced the growth of mother and daughter plants during the propagation of ‘Maehyang’ strawberry. Korean J Hortic Sci Technol 33:112 (Abstract)
Park IS, Kim DY, Yoon HS, Choi JM (2019) Influence of volumetric water content in a peat-perlite medium on mother plant growth and daughter plant occurrence during ‘Seolhyang’ strawberry propagation. Hortic Sci Technol 37:499–508
Raviv M, Lieth JH (2008) Soilless culture: theory and practice. Elsevier, New York
Rhie YH, Kim JY (2017) Changes in physical properties of various coir dust and perlite mixes and their capacitance sensor volumetric water content calibrations. HortScience 52:162–166
Shim CY, Park IS, Lee CW, Choi JM (2018) Influence of compositions and concentrations of post-planting fertilizers on the growth of ‘Nokkwang’ hot pepper plug seedlings. Hortic Sci Technol 36:28–36
Sonneveld C, Voogt W (2009) Plant nutrition of greenhouse crops. Springer, New York
Wallach R, da Silva FF, Chen Y (1992) Hydraulic characteristics of tuff (Scoria) used as a container medium. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 117:415–421
Warncke DD (1986) Analyzing greenhouse growth media by the saturation extraction method. HortScience 21:223–225
Acknowledgements
This work was carried out with the support of the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ01352602)”, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
HBP and SYP performed experiments and collected and analyzed data. ISP assisted in collecting data and amending the manuscript. IBJ and DYH assisted in data analysis. CWL designed the experiments and analyzed the data. JMC designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Communicated by Young Yeol Cho, Ph.D.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Park, H.B., Park, S.Y., Park, I.S. et al. Influence of nutrient solution concentration on growth and tissue mineral content of Panax ginseng seedlings cultured in a root medium containing peat and perlite. Hortic. Environ. Biotechnol. 61, 715–724 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-020-00262-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-020-00262-6