Data set Growth plants nursery
Description
Height and diameter records of plants of six different tropical natives species established under nursery conditions, Tabasco, México during six months of study. They were used to calculate relative growth rates and regression equations. The study species were: Calophyllum brasiliense, Bravaisia integerrima, Dialium guianense, Roseodendron donnell-smithii and Enterolobium cyclocarpum
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The seeds were obtained from different locations in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The experiment was conducted under black mesh umbraculum nursery shade (50%) (17° 96´LN; 92°95´LW), at 21.2 masl. Six species were selected to assess their development and preliminary growth under nursery conditions: C. brasiliense, B. integerrima, D. guianense, P. piscipula, R. donnell-smithii, and E. cyclocarpum. Seeds of D. guianense and E. cyclocarpum were subjected to a pre-germinative treatments. The seeds were then sown directly into polypropylene nursery trays of capacity 220 cm3 per cell, with two to three seeds sown per cell to ensure the ultimate occupation of each. The substrate consisted of a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, agrolite, and 3 kg of Multicote 8; seedlings were redistributed to complete a full coverage of the tray. Irrigation was applied ad libitum. To obtain the morphological descriptions of each species the following were determined: days to the beginning of germination and seedling functional morphology, general limb form (eophylls and metaphylls) and phyllotaxis. In periods of 2, 4, and 6 months, stem height was measured from the base to the apical meristem, and stem diameter was recorded at substrate level. In addition, the numbers of eophylls plus metaphylls in the juvenile leaves were quantified, along with the number of leaflets per leaf in the compound leaves. Relative growth rate (RGR) was obtained and analyzed for the same periods as for stem height and basal diameter. Survival of the plants was also quantified throughout the experiment in the same periods as described above. The experiment was established following a completely randomized design, originally quantifying 28 seedlings in each tray, representing replicates; the number of trays and seedlings quantified for each species was different in each measurement since this depended on the availability of seeds and seedling survival over time. The data pertaining to height and stem basal diameter, total number of leaves, and relative growth rate were statistically analyzed in three periods after sowing (0-2, 2-4, and 4-6 months) with nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis tests, using Statistix software 8 (Tallahassee, FL, USA), after checking non-normality of their distribution. For representation of the individual growth of each species, in the variables stem height and basal diameter over the six months of evaluation, regression curves were generated as a function of their greatest coefficient of determination (r2). All calculations were performed using the program CoStat 6.4 (CoHort Software, Monterey, CA, USA)