Growing Media Effects on Low-Altitude Adaptation of Geranium psilostemon Ledeb.: Growth, Leaf Chlorophyll Content, and ANN Modeling

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Abstract
Geranium psilostemon Ledeb. is a rhizomatous perennial whose cultivation performance under low-altitude conditions requires further investigation. This study evaluated survival, vegetative growth and meter-estimated total leaf chlorophyll content across five growing media in a single experiment conducted in an open-top section of a greenhouse facility. Rhizomes collected from a natural clump at 1375 m elevation in Maçka, Trabzon, Türkiye, were cultivated at 53 m elevation in peat, cocopeat, river silt, forest soil and an equal-volume mixture of these materials, with 30 individually potted rhizomes per treatment. Following approximately one year of cultivation, seven measurements were conducted between May and August 2024. Plant height, crown diameter, leaf number and chlorophyll content were recorded alongside substrate temperature, moisture, pH and electrical conductivity. Data were examined using exploratory ANOVA, post hoc comparisons, correlation analysis and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling. River silt and peat supported the highest survival percentages (83.3% and 80.0%, respectively), whereas survival in cocopeat was 10.0%. Peat produced the highest mean plant height and crown diameter, while river silt and peat had the highest mean leaf chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll content showed weak negative associations with substrate temperature (20.8–45.9 °C) and pH (5.30–10.20), and a weak positive association with electrical conductivity (0.00–0.31 mS cm−1). ANN modeling showed limited-to-moderate discrimination for survival status (ROC-AUC = 0.6653) and limited predictive performance for continuous traits, with plant height yielding the highest R2 (0.3192). These findings provide an initial basis for growing-media selection for low-altitude cultivation of G. psilostemon, with further independent trials needed to evaluate their consistency.

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