Growth dynamics of tree nursery seedlings: The case of oil palm

While substrate and fertiliser supply effects were fairly constant over time, bag size effects increased with larger variance explained over time. We observed that bag size effects overtook substrate, fertiliser and interaction effects from about two months onwards. Seedling height and collar diameter followed an exponential growth while number of leaves increased linearly over time. Analysis of generated data with the different growth models indicated that seedling growth rates were mainly under the influence of bag size, followed by substrate. Interactions between nursery practices, although significant sometimes, did not account for a large part of experimental error. Implications for tree seedling management are further discussed.