Performance of cocopeat amended media mixtures on growth and flowering of chrysanthemum

Abstract: Restricted pot volume and inadequate gaseous exchange in root zone environment restricts satisfactory growth and development of chrysanthemum plants. To this effect, an experiment was conducted to study the performance of cocopeat amended media mixtures in improving the root zone environment for satisfactory growth and flowering of chrysanthemum. The growing media mixtures such as farm yard manure and leaf mould as base media (25%) were amended with varying proportions each of soil: cocopeat (CP) as 75%:0; 50%:25%; 25%:50% and 0%:75% on volume basis. The media mixtures amended with increasing proportion of CP lowered the pH, bulk density, particle density and weight of the pots. The plants raised in media mixtures with increasing proportions of CP were observed to be well anchored and exhibited excellent quality of flowers. Utilizing 75% CP as a growing media amendment in FYM proved to be the best media mixture for ideal growth and performance of potted chrysanthemum. Better aggregate stability provided by the base media and increased K content in CP coupled with improved physical characteristics of media mixtures provide a suitable reason to utilize CP as a alternative light weight potting media for an ideal display of pot mums.