EFFECT OF PREPARATION OF SILVER BIRCH (BETULA PENDULA) SEEDS FOR SOWING ON SOWING QUALITIES AND BIOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF SEEDLINGS

UDC 630*232.315.3

Tatun Yauheni Uladzimiravich − PhD student, the Department of Forest Plantations and Soil Science. Belarusian State Technological University (13a Sverdlova str., 220006, Minsk, Republic of Belarus). E-mail: evgeniy.tatun@mail.ru

Nosnikov Vadim Valer’evich − PhD (Agriculture), Associate Professor, Assistant Professor of the Department of Forest Plantations and Soil Science. Belarusian State Technological University (13a Sverdlova str., 220006, Minsk, Republic of Belarus). E-mail: nosnikov@belstu.by

DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.52065/2519-402X-2025-288-4.

Key words: birch, seeds, seed preparation for sowing, growth stimulants, seedlings, greenhouse, open ground conditions, biometric parameters.

For citation: Tatun Ya. U., Nosnikov V. V. Effect of preparation of silver birch (Betula pendula) seeds for sowing on sowing qualities and biometric parameters of seedlings. Proceedings of BSTU, issue 1, Forestry. Nature Management. Processing of Renewable Resources, 2025, no. 1 (288), pp. 37–47 (In Russian). DOI: 10.52065/2519-402X-2025-288-4.

Abstract

The cultivation of birch is difficult. This is partly due to considerable variability in the quality of the resulting seed material, which is influenced by a variety of factors. In order to improve the sowing qualities of seeds, various methods of their preparation for sowing have been developed. Our study showed that growth stimulants Siliplant, Baikal, Zirkon increased germination by 14–18% when growing birch seedlings in open ground conditions. However, no effect of growth stimulants on seedling survival and biometric parameters of birch seedlings at summer sowing was detected. Under greenhouse conditions, the stimulant Siliplant had a significant effect on germination. Thus, germination exceeded the control experiment by 29%, and seedling survival by 11%. Snowing of pre-moistened seeds, although led to an increase in growth rate and average stem height by 14%, but had a negative effect on the germination rate in relation to the control. Seeds soaked for 7 days were insignificantly inferior to the seeds subjected to snowing in growth rate, but did not differ in germination rate and seedling survival from the control experiment. The results of our experiments showed that the germination and survival of seedlings and the parameters of birch seedlings were more influenced by growing conditions than by the methods of seed preparation for sowing. Thus, not only biometric parameters of seedlings, but also the ratio of plant parts differed. Seedlings grown in the open ground had a significantly lower stem height (by 37%) in relation to seedlings grown in the greenhouse. At the same time, open ground seedlings possessed longer root and more thickness of root-collar diameter relative to stim height. Thus, the root-to-stem ratio thickness in seedlings obtained in open ground conditions was 0.9–1.1, in seedlings obtained in greenhouse conditions 0.4–0.5.

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05.11.2024