Low-cost Nursery Media for Improving Germination of Chip Budded Seedlings for SSI

The quality and vigour of the chip budded seedlings are important components in SSI technology which in turn, depends on the nature of growing media. The most commonly used media for chip budded seedlings is pure coco peat which is a costlier one and availability is also restricted. Hence an alternate organic media to pure coco peat compressing low cost organic sources viz., Press mud, Coco peat, Coir pith, Town Compost and Vermicompost are essential to widespread this technology. Hence, an experiment was conducted at Sugarcane Research Station, Sirugamani in 2013-14 to find out suitable low cost media for producing vigorous seedlings of chip budded seedlings of Sugarcane. The experiment was conducted in RBD with 11 treatments comprising of different media with three replications. The treatments include Composted Coir pith :Vermicompost @2:1 ratio (T1), Composted coir pith + press mud @ 2:1 ratio (T2),Composted Coir pith :Vermicompost @3:1 ratio (T3), Composted coir pith + press mud @ 3:1 ratio (T4), Bagasse + Press mud @ 1:1 ratio (T5), Banana leaf compost: Press mud @1:2ratio (T6), Sugarcane trash Compost + press mud @ 1:1ratio (T7), Municipal Waste (Town Compost) + Sugarcane trash compost + Press mud @ 1:1 ratio (T7), Municipal waste (town Compost) + Sugarcane trash compost @ 1:1 ratio (T8), Composted Coir pith clone (Coco peat) (T9), Press mud alone (T10), Farm boon (composted press mud) (T11). Single budded chip buds from the healthy mother canes o TNAU Sugarcane Si 7 variety were prepared using bud chipper machine and the same was treated with 0.05% Carbendazim, Malathion 2% and Urea @ 1 for 15 minutes. The chip buds were shade dried for 2 hours and then planted in the pro trays filled with the media as per the treatments. The nursery media in different treatments were prepared using bud chipper machine and the same materials as per the treatments, half filed in the pro trays and the treated chip buds were planted in slanting position in the canes of the trays and then covered with the respective media. The trays were incubated for 5 days to induce sprouting and then kept under 50 % shade ned and water was sprinkled every day on the pro trays the grown up seedlings were observed for different growth parameters viz., Germination %, Survival percentage, Root and Shoot length, Shoot and root dry weight, dry matter production and vigour index.The results revealed that there was a significant difference on germination recorded at 20 DAS due to different nursery media tried. Higher germination of 66.93% was observed with T3 treatment (coir pith + Vermicompost @ 3: 1 ratio) It was on par with T6 treatment (Banana leaf Compost: Press mud % 1:2 ratio) and T10 treatment (Press mud alone). Regarding survival % recorded at 30 DAS, the higher revival % was recorded with T3 treatment. However, it was on par with T4, T5 & T10 treatments (Bagasse: press mud @ 1:2 ratio). The lower shoot length was recorded with T11 treatment where the nursery media of farm boon was used. There was no significant difference in influencing root length and number of leaves / seedling and root / shot ratio due to different treatments (nursery media) tried.