Propagation of steppe cherry on a peat-sand substrate with sapropel addition

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of peat-sand substrates with the addition of sapropel on rhizogenesis, growth and development of rooted cuttings, and the quality of steppe cherry seedlings. The experimental work was carried out at the Garden Center of the Agrarian University LLC in the Kras-noyarsk forest-steppe in 2017–2020. The object of the study was green cuttings of the Subbotinskaya va-riety of steppe cherry. The culture was reproduced by green cuttings according to the generally accepted method of M.T. Tarasenko. Stem cuttings were harvested in the first ten days of July, soaked in a solution of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) for 12 hours and planted in a greenhouse according to the 7 × 7 cm scheme in accordance with the experimental options. The basic substrate for rooting the cuttings consisted of high-moor acidic (Рн2o – 3.1) peat and river sand in a volume ratio of 1 : 1. To reduce the acidity of the peat and saturate the substrate with macro- and microelements, sapropel (Рн2o – 7.4) was added to the peat-sand mixture in doses of 10, 15 and 20 t/ha. In some variants, ammonium nitrate was additionally added at a dose of N30. The rooting of green cuttings of steppe cherry on the control version of the substrate was 64.5 %. Rhizogenesis of cuttings material in the block of variants peat + sand + sapropel is 16.6–18.1 % higher in relation to the control; in the block of variants peat + sand + sapropel + N30 it exceeded the va-lues of the control cuttings by 22.6–27.7 %. The share of influence of the "substrate" factor on rhizogenesis of cuttings is 49.5 %. The inclusion of sapropel in the substrate contributed to a statistically significant increase in the number of roots and the total length of the 1st order of branching roots on rooted cuttings. The largest number of seedlings of the 1st commercial grade was obtained in the variants peat + sand + sapropel 20 t/ha and peat + sand + sapropel 20 t/ha + N30 – 70.6 and 71.4 %, respectively.