THE EFFECT OF PRE-PLANTING PREPARATION ON THE GROWTH AND QUALITY OF JUNIPER AND THUJA SEEDLINGS WHEN GROWN IN CONTAINERS

The paper presents three-year research data about the influence of pre-planting preparation of the source material of juniper and thuja cultivars on the quality of plants grown in C3 container. The research was conducted in the Crimean district of Krasnodar Territory in 2018–2020. It was found that pruning of the ½ aboveground part of the initial plants during planting provides an increase in lateral branches per crown unit volume in the studied juniper cultivars by 1.46–1.99 times, while in thuja cultivars – by 2.0–2.14 times. Seedlings cut before planting in C3 have a higher selling price, generated profit and profitability of production.