Standardization of growing medium and primary nutrients for anthurium cultivation under greenhouse

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out for two consecutive years (2013–14 and 2014–15) to standardize the media alongwith primary nutrients for anthurium variety ‘Tropical’ under fan and pad type greenhouse. According to pooled data of two years, among different combinations of growing media and weekly foliar spray of NPK, plants grown in coconut husk + charcoal media (3: 1) with foliar spray of 30: 10: 10 NPK @ 0.2% on anthurium plants performed superior with respect to vegetative growth parameters where maximum plant height (46.77 cm), number of leaves per plant (8.14), leaf area (180.46 cm2) and plant spread (33.08 cm) was recorded. While plants grown in coconut husk and charcoal as growing media with foliar application of 12: 61: 40 NPK @ 0.2 per cent weekly produced significantly maximum flower stalk length (39.12 cm), spathe length (10.87 cm), spathe width (8.53 cm) and maximum number of flowers per plant (8.04). The same treatment had also resulted in advanced flowering (90.00 days).