Modelling seedling development using thermal effectiveness and photosynthetically active radiation

Seedling quality is a prerequisite for successful field performance and therefore influences crop yields. Temperature and illumination are two major factors affecting seedling quality during nursery propagation. Suboptimal temperature or light of nurseries generally result in leggy or weak seedlings and great economic loss. However, production of healthy seedlings is challenging due to the lack of knowledge in systemic management of nursery environments. In this study, we have established simulation models to predict how temperature and illumination coordinately influence the growth of tomato and cabbage seedlings. Specifically, correlation between seedling quality characteristics(root-shoot ratio, G value(growth function: defined as ratio of whole plant dry weight to days of seedling), healthy indexes) and TEP(thermal effectiveness and photosynthetically active radiation) were explored to establish the models, which were validated with independent test data. Our results suggested that the curve of healthy index 1(HI1) and TEP fitted well with high coefficient of determination(R~2) in both species, indicating that the model is highly reliable. The HI1 simulation models for tomato and cabbage are HI1=0.0009e-0.0015 and HI1= 0.0003e-0.0003, respectively, which can be used for predicting vigors of tomato and cabbage seedlings grown under different temperature and light conditions.