Standardization of soilless growth media for raising potted ornamental foliage plants for export purpose

An investigation was carried out at Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, College of Agriculture Vellanikkara to standardize a suitable soilless medium for growing ornamental foliage plants intended for export. Popular herbaceous foliage plant Aglaonema commutatum var. ‘Silver Frost’ was used for the study. The experiment consisted of five potting media (volume by volume basis) viz.,T1: cocopeat (70%) + rice husk (10%) + vermicompost (10% ) + sand (10%), T2: cocopeat (50%) + rice husk (25%) + vermicompost (15%) + sand (10%), T3: cocopeat (50%) + biochar (25%) + vermicompost (15%) + sand (10%), T4: cocopeat (25%) + biochar (25%) + vermicompost (25%) + sand (15%) + perlite (10%) and T5 : cocopeat (50%) + vermicompost (20%) + perlite (15%) + vermiculite (15%), laid out in completely randomized block design with four replications. As per the recommended grades and standards for potted foliage plants (FMA and FNGA, 1994), Aglaonema commutatum in eight inch pot should have a height and spread of 16’’- 20 (40.64 cm to 50.80 cm) and number of suckers should be 6 – 12. In the present study, the medium (T5) consisting of cocopeat (50%), vermicompost (20%), perlite (15%) and vermiculite (15%) was found to satisfy all these quality parameters and it was also light in weight with high water holding capacity (178.50%), low bulk density(0.35g/cm3) and high porosity(79.53%). Hence this can be recommended as a suitable medium for export of potted ornamental foliage plants.