Vol. 12, Issue 12 (2023)

Author(s):
R Amin, S Mahanta, B Sarma, RK Nath and S Sharma

Abstract:
An experiment was carried out on the rooftop of the administrative building of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during the year 2021-22, with a view to standardization of the growing media and pot size for rooftop gardening of petunia (variety-Tritunia star mix). The crop was subjected to seven growing media at three different pot size to study their effect. The experiment was laid out in factorial completely randomised block design with three replications. The crop is grown in seven growing medias comprising of different components by volume in three different pots, viz., S₁: 20 cm, S₂: 25 cm and S₃: 30 cm. The media compositions were G₀: Soil (as control), G₁: Soil + Sand +Vermicompost (1:1:1), G₂: Soil + Sand + Cocopeat + Vermicompost (1:1:2:2), G₃: Sand + cocopeat +Vermicompost (2:5:5), G₄: Sand + cocopeat + Vermicompost +Vermiculite (1:2:2:1), G₅: Sand + cocopeat + Vermicompost + Perlite (1:2:2:1), G₆: Sand + cocopeat + Vermicompost +Vermiculite + Perlite (1:2:2:0.25:0.25). The results revealed that the growth, flower and flowering attributing characters of Petunia were significantly increased in the media, G₆ with the increase of pot size S3. It also observed that the self-life and the least days to full bloom was recorded 16.67days and 76.847days respectively. Among the pot size, S₃ (30cm) gave the best results in vegetative and floral characters. The treatment combination T₂₁: S₃G₆ gave the highest B:C ratio (1.90). From the observation it can be concluded that the treatment combination T₂₁ was considered to be farmer’s friendly and best treatment combination in terms of better growth and flowering of petunia.