Abstract: Taking Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings as materials.A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of mixed substrates with loam/coconut coir ratio of 1∶0（T1 treatment）,2∶1（T2 treatment）,1∶1（T3 treatment）,1∶2（T4 treatment） and 0∶1（T5 treatment） on the morphological and physiological characteristics of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings, so as to screen suitable cultivation substrates and provide reference for efficient breeding of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings.The results showed that the leaf length, leaf width, plant height and fresh weight of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings firstly increased and then decreased with the increasing loam proportion in cultivation substrates.All the treatments had no significant effects on the leaf length-width ratio of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings while the leaf length/width ratio decreased with the increasing cultivation time.There was no significant difference in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid content in leaves of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings between different treatments.The chlorophyll a/b ratio of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings under T2 treatment was significantly higher than those of other treatments.The activities of catalase（CAT）,peroxidase（POD） and superoxide dismutase（SOD） as well as malondialdehyde（MDA）,soluble protein（SP） and soluble sugar（SS） content of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings were different under different treatments.The activities of CAT and POD as well as the content of MDA and SP in Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings under T1 treatment were higher than other treatments, which means that the seedlings treated with T1 treatment were under more stress.The activities of CAT,POD and SOD as well as the content of MDA,SP and SS of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings treated with T3 were lower than other treatments, which means that the seedlings treated with T3 treatment were under less stress.Overall, the compound substrates of loam and coconut coir were obviously better than pure loam or coconut coir substrates, and the T3 treatment was the optimal cultivation substrate, which could be used for efficient cultivation and industrial production of Atractylodes macrocephala seedlings.