Effects of film-bottomed treatment on seedling emergence and growth of Caragana korshinskii in arid northwestern China

A field study was conducted to study the effectiveness of film-bottomed treatment (FBT) on the seed germination and seedling establishment of Caragana korshinskii Kom. in the arid Hexi Corridor of northwestern China in 2007 and 2008. The experiment involved three different depths of film-bottomed treatments (DFBT) (80, 90 and 100 cm) and a control with twelve replications in each treatment. Soil moisture, seedling emergence percentage, leaf characteristics, shoot height, main root length, basal diameter, biomass, biomass allocation, as well as root system distribution, were studied and were found to be significantly higher with FBT in respect to the check (CK) values. Soil moisture content increased with depths of film-bottomed treatments. Our study demonstrates that C. korshinskii can be grown successfully using FBT in arid areas and 90 cm DFBT gives the maximum growth-promoting effect.