The effect of irrigation regime on some of the vegetative characteristics of seedlings produced by Caucasian hackberry in various provenance

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of irrigation regime on the Celtis caucasica seedlings growth in the Karaj, Hamedan, Khorramabad, and Shiraz provenance.

After collecting seeds were planted to study the effect of irrigation treatments and seed provenance, seeds in the pot. All the pots had the same conditions before all the seeds, were germinated. Subsequently, were treated to four irrigation treatments including control, 3-days, 5-days and 8- days in three replicates of 30 seedlings for six months from early June to late November. The seedlings height, the collar diameter, the leaf area, the root length, the stem length, and seedling survival percentage at the end of the growing season, were measured.

Tukey test results showed that the effect of seed provenance on all measured traits was significant (p <0.05). Irrigation treatments significantly affected seedling height, collar diameter and leaf area (p <0.05). On average, the highest amount of parameters measured at the Karaj provenance while the lowest was in Hamadan provenance. Commonly, the survival seedlings in all irrigation regimes were 70% but the highest survival rate related to control treatment. The highest seedling growth was observed in control treatment, while the least in 5-days and 8-days treatment, was observed. It is recommended to use Karaj Seeds for afforestation in Karaj.

It is suggested to apply an 8-days irrigation period for reducing the seedlings production cost in the nursery.