Irrigation regime affects water and aeration conditions in peat growth medium and the growth of containerized Scots pine seedings

Containerized Scots pine seedlings growing in light Sphagnum peat growth medium in a greenhouse were subjected to three irrigation treatments. The seedlings were irrigated by saturating the growth medium with a nutrient solution (i) daily or when (ii) –5 or (iii) –10 kPa medium matric potential was achieved. In general, the nutrient concentrations in the foliage of the seedlings were rather similar for all irrigation treatments. In the wet (daily) irrigation treatment, however, the foliar concentration of N was lower and the foliar concentrations of P, Ca, S, Mn and Na were higher than in the other two treatments. In the wet irrigation treatment, height growth was lower than that in the other treatments. In this treatment the shoot to root ratio and several other morphological characteristics were also reduced, while the number of root lenticels and seedling mortality were increased compared to the other treatments. Rapid growth was obtained by irrigating at –5 to –10 kPa matric potential. In the wet irrigation treatment, the median matric potential and air-filled porosity of the peat medium were –0.4 kPa and 11%, respectively, which indicated waterlogging and very suboptimal aeration to the seedlings. The respective values for the irrigations at –5 and –10 kPa were –2.7 to –3.3 kPa and 39 to 43%, which were considered to cover the range from optimum to slightly suboptimum for average water availability and aeration.