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Nursery Techniques Influence the Growth of HazelnutsWu, Shiman 21 January 2013 (has links)
Since Ferrero SpA established a manufacturing plant in Brantford, Ontario, there has been considerable interest in developing a hazelnut industry locally. One of the issues that needs to be overcome is to supply large numbers of suitable plants rapidly. They can be micropropagated, and then grown in the nursery. Usually, it takes two years to grow suitably sized plants in the nursery. This thesis investigated methods to grow suitably sized plants in one year and evaluated the nursery systems from financial aspect. Hazelnut seedlings were planted in ellepots and plastic pots, and then subjected to three treatments: grown in a retractable roof greenhouse, treated with root pruning technology or grown in outdoor environment. Also, two transplant timings were tested: the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2012. The results showed that pot type did not influence the growth of hazelnut seedlings. The retractable roof greenhouse increased growth and the root pruning technology changed the seedlings root structure but not their growth. Transplant timing did not affect the seedlings growth in the first year in the field. The retractable roof greenhouse has the potential to produce two crops of seedlings in one growing season compared to one crop in the outdoor nursery. The estimated cost per seedling under retractable roof greenhouse was $9.31, which was $1.95 cheaper than outdoor. / Ontario Centres of Excellence and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
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