Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Soibam Sushma Devi, Hemant Kumar Panigrahi, RK Dilip Singh and S Romen Singh

Abstract:
An experiment entitled “Evaluation of bio-fertilizers on seed germination and vegetative growth of Kachai Lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.) Under low cost hydroponic condition” was conducted at Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal, Manipur during the year 2021-22. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with ten treatments replicated three times. Seed treatment with different bio-fertilizers comprising of Pseudomonas fluorescens (5 g/kg of seeds), Azotobacter (5 ml/kg of seeds), Azospirillum (5 ml/kg of seeds), VAM (5 ml/kg of seeds), Trichoderma viride (5 ml/kg of seeds) and their combination with Trichoderma viride was done after seed extraction and washing, which were later sown on low cost hydroponic frames using blotting papers and bamboo, installed on plastic trays filled with distilled water. The observations were recorded at 4 months after sowing and it was revealed that the application of treatment T₇ - Azotobacter + Trichoderma viride recorded the minimum days taken for 50% germination (62.43 days) and complete germination (87.09 days) as well as the highest germination percentage (91.67%), germination vigour index (0.63), plant height (7.63 cm), leaf area/plant (2.10 cm²), root length (8.97 cm), seedling vigour index-I (1522), seedling vigour index-II (17.33), fresh weight of shoot (0.240 g) and root (0.054 g), and dry weight of shoot (0.163 g) and root (0.026 g). While T₅ -Trichoderma viride had given lowest incidence of fungal infection (1.67%) during the germination stage.