STUDY ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF Aloe vera USING REUSABLE PLANTING MEDIA

Abstract

Due to insufficient agricultural area and climatic factors, an increasing inclination of using soilless culture has been scrutinized worldwide. Soilless plant cultivation, which is more than ever important for the protection of the environment, is being extensively used in many countries. Purpose of this study was to examine plant growth and yield quality responses of Aloe vera grown in different soilless culture substrates, such as coconut coir chip, LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate), charcoal, wood chips, perlite, under rooftop conditions. Treatments were T 1 = Soil (Control), T 2 = Coconut coir chip 50% : LECA 50%, T 3 = Coconut coir chip 50% : Charcoal 50%, T 4 = Coconut coir chip 50% : Wood chips 50%, T 5 = Coconut coir chip 50% : Perlite 50%. We observed that different reusable planting media had significant effect on studied characters. Plant height, number of leaves plant -1 , leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf thickness, volume of mature leaf, number of suckers, gel weight and peel were measured at 120, 240 and 360 DAT. According to the results, all the parameters showed highest performance on coconut coir chip + LECA media. The lowest results were observed for T1 treatment.