Effect of growing media on tomato seedling production

Abstract

Experiments were laid out with ten treatments in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications for standardizing the growing media for seedling production in containers for tomato cv. PKM 1. The treatments included different growing media such as, red soil, sand, cocopeat, vermicompost and farm yard manure in different ratios based on volume. Results revealed that, among the treatments, T9 (75% vermicompost + 25% cocopeat) recorded the highest germination percentage (93.54 %) and lowest days taken for germination (4.00 days). The seedling growth parameters like seedling height (19.80 cm), seedling girth( 1.00 cm), leaf area (9.00 cm2), leaf chlorophyll content (28.77), shoot length (14.13 cm), root length ( 5.68 cm), seedling fresh weight(1.454 g), root to shoot ratio (0.373) and vigour index (1790.2) were significantly higher in the treatment T10 (75% Vermicompost + 25% FYM ) than control. Mortality was also minimum (11.49 %) in the treatment T10. The B: C ratio was highest (2.78) in the treatment T2.