Producing high-quality container-grown Scots pine seedlings: the role of substrate composition and plant growth regulators

Vasyl Khryk; Ivan Kimeichuk; Viacheslav Chuba; Yuliya Vashchuk; Svitlana Lewandowska; Oleksandr Sytnyk; Olena Hrynyk; Heorhii Hrynyk

doi:10.2478/ffp-2026-0008

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Producing high-quality container-grown Scots pine seedlings: the role of substrate composition and plant growth regulators

Folia Forestalia Polonica

Volume 68 (2026): Issue 2 (June 2026)

By: Vasyl Khryk , Ivan Kimeichuk , Viacheslav Chuba , Yuliya Vashchuk , Svitlana Lewandowska , Oleksandr Sytnyk , Olena Hrynyk and Heorhii Hrynyk

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Figures & Tables

General appearance of Scots pine seedlings in excellent (A), satisfactory (B) and unsatisfactory (C) condition in the experimental container culture

Dynamics of Scots pine seedling condition depending on the tested substrate composition modifications as of 2024

Condition of the root system of container-grown Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings in BCC containers

Results of the study on height and root length of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L_) Seedlings Treated with Plant Growth Regulators

Treatment	Height, cm			Root length, cm
Treatment	M	m	t	M	m	t
Stimpo	10.5/10.7	0.23/0.33	5.0/5.2	28.0/27.5	0.24/0.31	7.0/6.7
Epin Extra	11.5/11.0	0.32/0.34	7.0/6.5*	21.5/21.8	0.33/0.44	-1.5/-1.8
Humat Ultra	14.0/13.2	0.51/0.42	12.5/12.0**	29.0/28.3	0.41/0.53	8.2/8.0*
Megafol	16.0/14.5	0.45/0.43	15.0/14.2**	32.0/31.0	0.51/0.55	11.5/11.0**
Control	9.0/8.8	0.34/0.25	–	23.0/23.5	0.37/0.36	–

Biometric Parameters of Pinus sylvestris Seedlings Under the Application of Plant Growth Regulators

Treatment	Diameter of the root collar, mm			Number of lateral shoots, pcs.
Treatment	M	m	t	M	m	t
Stimpo	2.0/2.1	0.05/0.06	14.0/13.8**	1.7/1.8	0.14/10.13	0/0.2
Epin Extra	1.6/1.7	0.07/0.05	9.0/8.5*	1.5/1.6	0.12/0.14	-0.80/-0.70
Humat Ultra	1.9/1.9	0.06/0.04	13.5/14.0**	1.3/1.4	0.17/0.15	-1.50/-1.40
Megafol	2.2/2.3	0.08/0.06	16.0/15.3**	1.9/1.9	0.19/0.18	0.75/0.70
Control	1.1/1.2	0.03/0.02	–	1.4/1.5	0.25/0.22	–

Dynamics of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L_) Seed Germination Depending on Substrate Composition Modifications

Date of germinated seed recording	Modifications of substrate composition / number of germinated seeds, pcs.					p-value
Date of germinated seed recording	Bark:peat 2:1 (1)	Bark:peat 1:1 (2)	Bark:peat 1:2 (3)	Bark:peat:forest soil 1:1:1 (4)	Bark:peat:sawdust compost 1:1:1 (5)	p-value
May 13	0.0^{±0.0 a}	0.0^{±0.0 a}	0.0^{±0.0 a}	0.0^{±0.0 a}	0.0^{±0.0 a}	–
May 27	31.0^{±1.0 ab}	22.0^{±1.0 bc}	26.0^{±1.5 ab}	15.0^{±1.0 c}	20.0^{±1.5 bc}	< 0.05
June 3	42.0^{±2.0 b}	43.0^{±2.0 b}	55.5^{±1.5 a}	40.0^{±2.0 b}	39.0^{±2.0 b}	< 0.01
June 22	55.0^{±2.0 ab}	56.5^{±2.0 ab}	63.0^{±2.0 a}	48.0^{±2.5 bc}	42.0^{±2.0 c}	< 0.05
July 6	58.5^{±1.5 ab}	57.0^{±2.0 ab}	63.5^{±1.5 a}	50.5^{±1.0 bc}	42.5^{±1.5 c}	< 0.05

Effect of pre-sowing treatment with plant growth regulators on the seed quality of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L_)

Treatment	Germination energy		Germination capacity
Treatment	%	% relative to control	%	% relative to control
Stimpo	80/78	138/132	86/84	113/109
Epin Extra	64/62	110/106	80/78	105/101
Humat Ultra	44/40	76/75	60/58	79/73
Megafol	54/52	93/91	70/68	92/93
Control	58/56	–	76/74	–

Air-dry mass of P_ sylvestris seedlings under the use of plant growth regulators

Treatment	Aboveground biomass, g				Root biomass		Root-to-shoot ratio
	g	Relative to control, %	Including needles		g	Relative to control, %
	g	Relative to control, %	g	Relative to control, %	g	Relative to control, %
Stimpo	48.6/48.1	160/159	33.7/30.8	157/142	19.6/18.8	172/165	0.4/0.7
Epin Extra	50.0/48.6	165/160	34.0/33.7	159/155	18.6/19.6	163/172	0.4/0.6
Humat Ultra	48.1/50.0	159/165	30.8/34.0	144/157	18.8/18.6	165/163	0.4/0.5
Megafol	76.4/76.4	252/254	47.3/47.5	220/219	26.0/27.0	228/229	0.3/0.8
Control	30.3/30.3	–/–	21.5/21.7	–/–	11.4/11.5	–/–	0.4/0.5

Dynamics of the Average Height of Scots Pine Seedlings Depending on the Tested Substrate Composition Modifications in the Experiment

Control date	Biometric indicators	Modifications of the tested substrate compositions
Control date	Biometric indicators	Bark:peat 2:1 (1)	Bark:peat 1:1 (2)	Bark:peat 1:2 (3)	Bark:peat:forest soil 1:1:1 (4)	Bark:peat:sawdust compost 1:1:1 (5)
March 24	H	4.3^±0.9/5.1^±1.0	4.4^±1.0/5.4^±1.1	4.6^±1.0/5.5^±1.1	3.8^±0.8/4.7^±0.9	4.2^±0.9/5.4^±1.1
March 24	σ	0.7^±0.08/0.8^±0.08	0.8^±0.10/1.0^±0.12	0.8^±0.10/0.9^±0.10	0.8^±0.10/0.9^±0.10	1.3^±0.20/1.6^±0.22
September 2	H	4.1^±0.7/4.9^±0.9	3.7^±0.7/4.5^±0.8	4.4^±0.7/5.2^±0.8	3.6^±0.8/4.5^±0.9	3.6^±1.3/5.2^±1.6
September 2	σ	0.7^±0.05/0.8^±0.05	0.7^0.05/0.8^0.05	0.7^0.05/0.8^0.05	0.8^0.05/0.9^±0.05	1.3^±0.15/1.6^±0.15
October 1	H	4.3^±0.8/5.1^±0.8	4.4^±1.0/5.4^±0.9	4.6^±0.9/5.5^±0.9	3.8^±0.9/4.7^±0.7	4.2^±1.2/5.4^±0.9
October 1	σ	0.7^±0.05/0.8^±0.15	0.8^±0.05/1.0^±0.12	0.8^±0.05/0.9^±0.12	0.8^±0.05/0.9^±0.12	1.3^±0.15/1.6^±0.25

Biomass of P_ sylvestris Seedlings under the Use of Plant Growth Regulators

Treatment	Aboveground biomass, g						Root biomass, g
	M	m	t	Including needles			Root biomass, g
	M	m	t	M	m	t	M	m	t
Stimpo	1.7/1.5	0.13/0.12	4.20/3.92	1.2/1.0	0.07/0.08	4.20/3.00	0.7/0.6	0.05/0.04	4.00/3.75
Epin Extra	1.8/1.6	0.10/0.11	5.00/4.56*	1.1/1.0	0.08/0.08	5.00/3.44	0.8/0.6	0.04/0.04	4.00/3.75
Humat Ultra	1.5/1.6	0.18/0.19	3.00/2.80	0.8/0.9	0.06/0.07	3.00/2.75	0.6/0.5	0.06/0.04	3.50/3.00
Megafol	2.5/2.4	0.17/0.18	7.50/7.42*	1.5/1.4	0.07/0.11	7.50/5.75*	0.9/0.7	0.07/0.06	5.00/5.33*
Control	1.2/1.0	0.07/0.06	–	0.6/0.7	0.03/0.04	–	0.5/0.4	0.03/0.02	–

Determination of the Variation Index of Seedling Height

Modification	CV by years, %
Modification	2023	Accuracy	2024	Accuracy
Modification 1 (bark:peat 2:1)	17.07	Good	18.37	Good
Modification 2 (bark:peat 1:1)	18.92	Good	17.78	Good
Modification 3 (bark:peat 1:2)	15.91	Good	15.38	Good
Modification 4 (bark:peat:forest soil 1:1:1)	22.22	Medium	20.00	Transition zone between good and moderate
Modification 5 (bark:peat:sawdust compost 1:1:1)	36.11	Low	30.77	Low

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ffp-2026-0008 | Journal eISSN: 2199-5907 | Journal ISSN: 0071-6677

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Language: English

Page range: 89 - 108

Submitted on: Feb 18, 2026

Accepted on: Feb 26, 2026

Published on: Jun 25, 2026

Published by: Forest Research Institute

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

root plant growth stimulants,

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© 2026 Vasyl Khryk, Ivan Kimeichuk, Viacheslav Chuba, Yuliya Vashchuk, Svitlana Lewandowska, Oleksandr Sytnyk, Olena Hrynyk, Heorhii Hrynyk, published by Forest Research Institute
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 68 (2026): Issue 2 (June 2026)

Producing high-quality container-grown Scots pine seedlings: the role of substrate composition and plant growth regulators

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Results of the study on height and root length of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L_) Seedlings Treated with Plant Growth Regulators

Biometric Parameters of Pinus sylvestris Seedlings Under the Application of Plant Growth Regulators

Dynamics of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L_) Seed Germination Depending on Substrate Composition Modifications

Effect of pre-sowing treatment with plant growth regulators on the seed quality of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L_)

Air-dry mass of P_ sylvestris seedlings under the use of plant growth regulators

Dynamics of the Average Height of Scots Pine Seedlings Depending on the Tested Substrate Composition Modifications in the Experiment

Biomass of P_ sylvestris Seedlings under the Use of Plant Growth Regulators

Determination of the Variation Index of Seedling Height

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