The Effects of Nutrient Levels in Nursery Soils on Plant Quality of Cucumber, Tomato, Eggplant and Melon Seedlings

Abstract

The effects of nursery soils containing different levels of N, P, K, Ca and Mg on the growth of cucumber, tomato, eggplant and melon seedlings and on their shape and nutrient content were assessed. Seedlings were grown in vinyl pots (10.5 cm diam.).
1. The number of leaves per plant within a species varied little from plot to plot; the least variation was found among cucumber seedlings.
2. Different mineral composition of nursery soils resulted in large variations in stem, leaf and shoot weights. These characteristics were highly correlated to each other, so that shoot weight alone might serve as a sole index of plant quality.
3. Significant positive correlation existed between shoot and root weights only for tomato seedlings.
4. In all cultivars tested, the variations in the ratios of leaf : stem weights and shoot weight : plant height attributable to nutrient levels in soils were small; whereas, the variation was large in stem : root and shoot: root ratios.
5. No significant correlation was observed among each nutrient in their concentration and content in the seedlings except for N concentration and shoot weights of tomato and eggplant seedlings.
We conclude that shoot and root weights and shoot: root ratio are dependable criteria for evaluating the quality of cucumber, tomato, eggplant and melon seedlings grown on soils having different nutrient levels.