Ensayo comparativo de cuatro tipos de recipientes para producción de plantas forestales

Abstract

This study carried out in Turrialba, Costa Rica, was executed to compare the cost of four types of containers and to determine the influence of these recipients on survival and growth of young plants of Cupressus lusitanica Mill and Antocephalus cada Miq., both in the nursery as well as in all the field. The containers used in the experiment were: Conical peat pots (“Fertil pots”), plastic bags, cylinders of tarred paper and rectangular containers of galvanized iron. The capacity of the containers was 800, 870, 550 and 549 cm3 respectively; the latter two types of recipients were bottomless. All four types of containers were placed on elevated frames in the nursery, a practice used in Turrialba to eliminate root pruning. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design. In the nursery phase, survival and growth of the pricked-off seedlings were considered in terms of number of failures, plant height, stem diameter and oven dry weight of the roots and aerial parts of the plants. The survival of plants raised in fertilpots was inferior to the survival of those raised in others containers. This may be attributed to the higher evaporation from this type of container. The plants raised in plastic bags presented the most vigorous growth, followed by plants raised in bottomless metal containers. With respect to the survival after planting in the field, no differences between treatments have been encountered, which was probably due to the favorable climatic conditions prevailing at the time of planting. The influence of the type of container on plant growth, apparently persists in the field. The plants raised in plastic bags presented a slight superiority in growth. In relation to cost, the production of plants raised in the rectangular metal containers and the subsequent establishment of the plantations with plants produced in this type of container, were by far the lowest. Taking into account to low costs of production, bandling and transport of the metal containers and considering the satisfactory results of survival and growth in the field, the metal containers should be preferred to the other types tested under the climatic conditions of Turrialba.