Effect of planting media modification on growth and seed potential of two vanilla varieties

Abstract

The discontinuous availability of good-quality seeds had become the main problem in vanilla development. One of the limiting factors is the retarded growth of tendrils, which are used as plant propagation materials. The growth of vanilla vines using recommended cultivation techniques only produces one internode/month. Therefore it is necessary to modify the cultivation techniques to accelerate vanilla seeds production. Modifying the seed propagation media is one of the possible adjustments. This research aims to analyze the effect of planting media modification on vanilla growth and seed potency. The study used a randomized block design of 2 factors with four replications. The first factor is variety, namely Vania 1 and Vania 2, while the second factor is the type of planting media, namely media 1 (compost: burnt husks: cow manure (1:1:1)), media 2 (soil: compost: burnt husks: cow manure (1:1:1:1) ), media 3 (recommended cultivation (soil: cow manure (1:1)). The parameters observed were plant growth (tendrils length, number of internodes, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width), cutting potential (seeds) and chlorophyll content. The results showed that the growth of Vania 1 was the same as that of Vania 2 and media composition without soil (media 1) resulted in the highest cutting potential compared to other media.