Effects of mixed substrates of different agricultural and forestry residues on the cutting seedlings of .

To screen environment-friendly seedling cultivation substrates which could replace peat and with less cost, we compared the effects of different agricultural and forestry residue mixed substrates on cutting propagation of , in an experiment following randomized block design. There were five types of mixed substrates, including peat + vermiculite + perlite (T), edible mushroom residue (EMR) + vermiculite + perlite (T), carbo-nized rice husk (CRH) + vermiculite + perlite (T), EMR + slag + sawdust (T) and CRH + EMR + slag (T). The results showed that the bulk density of T was the lowest, followed by T, which significantly differed from other mixed substrates. The non-capillary porosity of T was significantly greater than that of T, while the capillary porosity and the total porosity of T was lower than T and T, respectively. T had the highest contents of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen, available phosphorus, substrate moisture and the highest pH, which differed significantly from other mixed substrates in most chemical indicators. The membership function values of rooting rate and growth indicators of cuttings with different mixed substrates were in order of T > T > T> T > T. Most indicators with larger grey relation values were physical indicators. The top five indicators were capillary water capacity, total potassium, field water capacity, maximum water capacity, and total porosity, with both capillary water capacity and total potassium content ranking first. In general, the physicochemical properties, rooting rate, and growth characteristics of cuttings under T were better than those of other mixed substrates. The capillary water capacity and total potassium were the main factors affecting rooting and growth of cuttings. At the early stage of cutting, the physical properties of mixed substrate had greater effect on rooting rate and growth of cuttings than the chemical properties. Overall, our results suggested that T should be preferred in the cutting propagation of .