Effect of growing media and paclobutrazol on growth, flowering and pot presentability of geranium, Pelargonium x hortorum LH Bailey Singh Jujhar, Dilta BS1,*, Gupta YC, Sharma BP, Baweja HS, Kaushal Sapna Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and forestry, Nauni, Solan-173230, HP, India 1Department of Seed Science and Technology, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and forestry, Nauni, Solan-173230, HP, India *Email forcorrespondence: balbirsinghdilta@gmail.com
Online published on 25 July, 2018. Abstract The present investigations were carried out at the experimental farm of the Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr YS Parmar university of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan with the objective to work out the effect of growing media and paclobutrazol on growth, flowering and pot presentability of geranium. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (factorial) having 21 treatment combinations of growing media (7) and paclobutrazol doses (3) replicated thrice. Seven growing media viz T1 (rhododendron forest soil + FYM + vermicompost (1:1:1, v/v), T2 (rhododendron forest soil + FYM + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v), T3 (rai forest soil + FYM + vermicompost (1:1:1, v/v), T4 (rai forest soil + FYM + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v), T5 (Mohru oak forest soil + FYM + vermicompost (1:1:1, v/v), T6 (Mohru oak forest soil + FYM: vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v), T7 (soil + FYM + sand (1:1:1, v/v) and three doses of paclobutrazol viz 0, 10 and 20 ppm were used. The observations were recorded on various growth, flowering and pot presentability attributes. The maximum values wrt most desirable parameters viz number of shoots per plant (6.71), plant spread (24.27 cm), number of flowers per inflorescence (17.33), duration of flowering (123.60 days) and pot presentability score (77.00) were recorded in T4 whereas maximum inflorescence diameter (8.74 cm), number of inflorescences per plant (14.10) and maximum number of inflorescences opened at a time (9.67) were recorded in T3. Among the paclobutrazol doses used. Untreated control exhibited maximum plant height (30.43 cm), plant spread (26.96 cm), inflorescence diameter (10.11 cm) and duration of flowering (125.30 days). However maximum number of shoots per plant (7.02), days to flower bud formation (124.80), days to first flower opening (135.30), number of inflorescences per plant (12.56) and number of inflorescences opened at a time (8.33) was obtained with 20 ppm paclobutrazol. Drenching of the geranium plants with 10 ppm paclobutrazol dose recorded maximum pot presentability (79.00). Top Keywords Geranium, growing media, paclobutrazol, growth, flowering, pot presentability. Top |