Abstract
Seeds of eggplant, cv. ‘Hayabusa’ and sweet pepper, cv. ‘Tosashishitohgrashi’ were sown in a bed filled with sand. After cotyledon expansion, seedlings were pricked off into 12 cm polyethylene pots with three seminal root treatments, 1) keeping seminal root vertically, 2) pruning seminal root, and 3) keeping seminal root in curl. All seedlings were raised for 50 days and then transplanted into a vinyl-house.
The growth of seedlings was promoted by keeping seminal root vertically at potting time compared with that of the seedlings with pruning seminal root and that of the seedlings that kept seminal root in curl. Seedlings that kept seminal root vertically showed lower ratio of top weight to root weight with a higher root and lower shoot percentage of dry matter distribution than other seedlings.
The higher yield was obtained on the plants from the seedlings that kept seminal root vertically, which grew faster, developed a deeper and wider root system consisting in a lot of thick roots over 1 mm in diameter after transplanting both in eggplant and sweet pepper raised in two kinds of bed soil. Pruning or keeping seminal root in curl retarded the subsequent growth and reduced the yield.
The yield was closely correlated to the number of thick root over 1 mm in diameter. As the number of thick roots increased, the yield was higher.
Plants that had a lower ratio of top weight to root weight at transplanting time developed better and showed higher yield. There was a correlation between this ratio and yield, although significance was just found in eggplant but not in sweet pepper.
