THE EFFECT OF SOIL TYPE ON THE RELATION 

 BETWEEN SOIL WATER REGIME AND GROWTH 

 OF SEEDLINGS OF QUERCUS PETRAEA (MATT.) 



LIEBL. 



P.G.Jarvis 

 Department of Botany, The University of Sheffield* 



INTRODUCTION 



A LARGE amount of literature now exists on the relation between soil 

 water regime and the growth of many different plants (for reviews, see 

 Stanhill, 1957; Veihmeyer, 1956). In many of these experiments, compari- 

 sons have been made between the responses of different species and types of 

 plants to well-defmed soil water regimes. However, most of the critical 

 experiments have been carried out on one, or more rarely two, different 

 soil types. The experiment described here demonstrates the need for a 

 prehminary investigation to determine the comparative suitabihty of a 

 range of soils for the growth of each species to be investigated, before an 

 attempt can be made to compare the physiological responses of different 

 species to defined soil water regimes. 



As part of an investigation into the growth response of seedlings of 

 Quercus petraea to certain factors of possible ecological importance, an 

 experiment was carried out in which seedlings were grown under three 

 different defined soil water regimes on five soils of different character. 

 Since the response to similar soil water regimes was very different on the 

 different soil types, as much information as is available is given for each 

 soil used. 



METHOD 



The soils were collected (in April, 1959) directly into the large polythene 

 bowls (35 cm mean diam. x 15 cm deep) in which the plants were grown. 

 Eight acorns were planted per bowl and the seedlings were subsequently 

 thinned to leave 6 or 7 of similar size. The acorns were all obtained from 

 one parent tree and were selected to be of uniform size. The bowls were 

 regularly watered so that no soil moisture tensions (SMTs) occurred imtiJ 

 the seedlings had all developed one whorl of leaves. The cotyledons were 



* Now at : Institute of Physiological Botany of The University of Uppsala, Uppsala, 

 Sweden. 



