Impact of Different Growth Medium on Germination and Growth Characteristics of Papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady in Jalandhar District of Punjab, India

Abstract

The experiment was set up in Agriculture Research Farm Sant Baba Bhag Singh University, Jalandhar in the years 2021–2022. This area is in the short, cold, and dry agroclimatic zone. Papaya seeds were sown on 24 September 2021 in polybags and transplanted to the field on 21 March 2022. During the papaya growing season, the mean daily temperatures varied between 280C to 350C, and the relative humidity 75 percent. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Block Design with 6+1 (control) treatment replicated thrice. T0: Garden Soil, T1: Soil+ Poultry Manure (3:1), T2: Soil+ Neem Cake (3:1), T3: Soil + Vermicompost (3:1), T4: Soil+ F.Y.M (3:1), T5: Soil+ Cocopeat (3:1) and T6: Soil +Perlite (3:1) were used as treatments in different ratio. From the present investigation, it was found that treatment [T4 : Soil + FYM (3:1)] was found best in the terms of the least time required for imbibition (4.8 days), germination percentage (32.33), seedling height (7.3 and 9cm),  number of leaves (6.6 and 7.3), seedling vigour (31.54), number of roots (6.6 and 8.6), root length (6.6cm), survival percentage (32.54) and rate of seedling emergence (26.26).