Effect of Different Growing Media on Survival and Growth of Grape (Vitus vinifera) Cuttings

ABSTRACT:

Propagation through hardwood cutting is a common method adopted by farmers and nursery workers to commercialize grape plants. The survival, success, and vigor of the cutting depend upon many factors. The growing media plays a crucial role because it serves as a basic supplier of mineral nutrients and provides support to the growing roots, hence keeping in view the importance of growing media current experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of grape cultivars in different growing media at Department of Horticulture, The University of Haripur, during January-April 2020. Hardwood cutting of two grape cultivar Sundar Khani and Thompson were planted in ten different media viz; Compost, Sand, Soil, Farmyard manure (FYM), and mixture of Soil + Sand(1:1), Compost + Soil(1:1), FYM + Soil(1:1), Sand + Compost(1:1), Sand + FYM(1:1), and Compost + FYM(1:1). The results showed that the highest survival percentage (90%), shoot length (30.83cm), number of leaves (18.83), root length (13.66cm), and number of roots (14.50) were recorded in Compost while, maximum days to emergence (17.5) and mortality percentage (59.8%) were recorded in FYM and Soil, respectively. Sundar Khani showed the highest days to emergence (11.4), mortality percentage (29.63%), root length (9.03cm), number of roots (32.33), while grape variety Thompson showed the highest sprouting percentage (79.9%), shoot length (19.63cm) and number of leaves (11.1). Hence, it is concluded that among different growing media, Compost showed promising results, and Thompson showed the highest survival percentage that can be used for commercial purposes.