Influence of nursery raising techniques on root development and growth of nursery plants of pecan nut (Carya illinoensis Koch.)

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of various nursery raising techniques on root growth and development, growth of seedlings and their survival in the field after transplanting at Department of Fruit Science, dr y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan during the years 2008 and 2009. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design having six nursery raising techniques viz. raising of seedling in polybags of 4 x 9 “ size and transplanting after germination by chopping the tap root, raising of seedlings in nursery beds having cemented base at 20 cm depth, raising of seedlings in nursery beds having polythene sheet at 20 cm depth, wrenching of germinating seedlings in April-May, wrenching of seedlings in July-August and raising of seedlings in nursery beds and each treatment was replicated four times. the results revealed that wrenching of newly formed seedlings resulted in the production of more lateral roots and significantly increased total root length, seedling height and diameter, leaf area and biomass production as compared to control. the highest survival of seedlings in the field after transplanting was also recorded in newly germinating wrenched seedlings.