Effect of dehydration degree and weight of substrate on the growth and physiological characteristics of Camellia oleifera container seedlings

In this paper,relationship between the weight of container substrate and the aboveground biomass of seedlings,and relationship between the container substrate dehydration degree of Camellia oleifera and the enzyme activities of peroxidase(POD),catalase(CAT),and the relative conductivity were studied.The results showed that:(1) The weight of container substrate was positively related with the aboveground biomass,and the regression equa-tion was y = 0.059 x + 0.9194.(2) There was a negative parabola correlation of the ratio of the weight of container substrates and the aboveground biomass in the different dehydration conditions.(3) The leaf relative conductivity firstly decreased then increased as dehydration degree increased with the relative conductivity reached its lowest value at 20% dehydration degree,followed by a sharp increasing trend.(4) CAT and POD activity firstly decreased then increased and finally inactivated as the dehydration degree increasing,and the enzyme activities reached its peak when the dehydration degree was 40%.(5) All the tests showed that physiological activity of seedlings was op-timum when the dehydration degree was 20%.Therefore,the dehydration degree of container substrate should be controlled in 20% in the process of cultivating container seedlings of C.oleifera in the future.