Dynamics of growth and development in celery under the influence of organic fertilizers

A. Becherescu, G. Hoza, F. Sala
The study analysed the dynamics of growth and development of celery plants, ‘Rex’ cultivar, under the influence of organic fertilizers. Fertilizers Naturamin Plus, 25 mL 10 L‑1 water (V2), Naturvital Plus, 25 mL 10 L‑1 water (V3), and Naturcomplet G, 300 g 100 m‑2 (V4) were used. For comparison, a control variant (V1) was considered. For seedlings production, the sowing date (Ds) was January 15. The seedlings planting date (Pd) was March 22. Plant determinations were made on May 25 (Dd1), on June 13 (Dd2) and on July 13 (Dd3). The dynamic variation of the parameters Lw (leaf weight), Rw (root weight) and Tpw (total plant weight) was described by polynomial equations of the 2nd degree under statistical safety conditions (R2=0.827, p=0.00036, RMSE=0.04501 in the case of Lw; R2=0.941, F=71.24714, p<0.001, RMSE=0.10369 in the case of Rw; R2=0.934, F=63.39694, p<0.001, RMSE=0.12268 in the case of Tpw). The growth rate (Δ) in root weight in the interval Dp-Dd3 (ΔRw) varied between ΔRw=0.0075 kg day‑1 in the case of the V1 variant, and ΔRw=0.0118 kg day‑1 in the case of the V4 variant. Differentiated variations of the growth rate (Δ) were recorded on the determination intervals, respectively ΔRw1=0.0012 – 0.0023 kg plant‑1 day‑1 (Dp-Dd1); ΔRw2=0.0148-0.0163 kg plant‑1 day‑1 (Dd1-Dd2); ΔRw3=0.0166-0.0303 kg plant‑1 day‑1 (Dd2-Dd3). The regression analysis resulted in models in the form of equations and graphic models (3D, isoquants) that described the variation of Tpw in relation to Lw and Rw (R2=0.999, p<0.001, RMSE=0.00315). According to PCA, PC1 explained 77.006% of variance, and PC2 explained 22.993% of variance.
Becherescu, A., Hoza, G. and Sala, F. (2025). Dynamics of growth and development in celery under the influence of organic fertilizers. Acta Hortic. 1416, 165-176
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.22
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.22
celery, growth rate, models, organic fertilizers, PCA, response curves
English

Acta Horticulturae