Effect of Different Growing Media and Polybag Sizes on Seeds Germination & Root System of Rough Lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) in Nursery Condition
Shweta *
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar (Haryana), India.
R.P.S Dalal
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar (Haryana), India.
Pravesh Kumar
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar (Haryana), India.
Shweta Sabharwal
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar (Haryana), India.
Renu
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar (Haryana), India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: The study aimed to evaluate the different growing media & polybag size for seedling growth of rough lemon rootstock.
Study Design: The experiment used a Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications.
Place and Duration of Study: The study "Effect of Growing Media and Polybag Size on Rough Lemon Seedling Growth" took place in an insect-proof net house at CCS Haryana Agricultural University during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Methodology: It comprising of 30 treatment combination i.e., ten different growing media: T1: garden soil; T2: soil: sand (1:1); T3: soil: sand: leafmold (1:1:1); T4: soil: cocopeat (1:1); T5: sand: cocopeat (1:1); T6: soil: sand: cocopeat (1:1:1); T7: soil: FYM (1:1); T8: sand: FYM (1:1); T9: soil: sand: FYM (1:1:1); T10: soil: sand: FYM: cocopeat (1:1:1:1), and the polybags S1: large (30 x 18 cm), S2: medium (21 x 18 cm) & S3: small size (17 x 16 cm) bags.
Results: The study found that adding cocopeat to growing media (T4, T5, T6) resulted in earlier germination and higher rates (87-89%) Whereas, T4 to T10 media consists of either FYM, cocopeat for both resulted into more germination 87-89% as compared to controls (T1, T2, T3). The most of the root growth parameters i.e., diameter of tap root(2.45mm), fresh root weight (4.63g) & dry root weight (1.21g) & root: shoot ratio (0.61) improved with the media sand: FYM, soil: FYM, sand: soil: FYM, sand: soil: FYM: cocopeat in equal proportion. However, when media supplemented with cocopeat (T4, T5 & T6 ) also showed appreciable results as compared to soil, sand: soil & soil: sand: leafmold. However, sand: FYM, sand: cocopeat treatments were best in respect of number of primary roots (61.22), root volume (6.44ml). Whereas, sand: soil showed very poor results in all growth aspects. Among polybags sizes, large size (30 x 18cm) bags performed best in most of the germination & root growth parameters.
Conclusion: Media enriched with organic matter outperformed sole media across all parameters, while larger polybags produced significantly better results than medium and small sizes.
Keywords: Rough lemon seedlings, complete randomized design, growing media & polybag size