Effect of Different Growing Media on Seedling Growth Parameters and Economics of Papaya (Carica papaya L) cv. Pusa Delicious

The experiment was conducted to study the “Effect of different growing media on seedling growth parameters and economics of papaya (Carica papaya L) cv. Pusa Delicious” at Departmental Nursery and Horticulture farm, S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Rajasthan during 2014-15. The treatments were prepared with combination between types of media with level of cocopeat having 50 polybags in each treatment and replication. The results showed that the medium of soil + vermicompost + vermiculite (1:1:1) with 2 cm cocopeat at top of polybags (T5) found to be the best and significantly superior medium for the growth of papaya seedlings as it gave the highest growth parameters in terms of stem girth (4.49 mm and 5.90 mm at 30 and 45 DAS, respectively), number of roots (16.06), root length (9.07 cm), fresh weight of shoot and root (4.66 g and 1.04 g, respectively) and least root: shoot ratio (0.22). This treatment also recorded highest survival percentage (94.67) which reduced mortality of plants and produced healthy seedlings with highest net returns (Rs 7401/1000 seedlings). Further, it can be concluded that use of soil + vermicompost + vermiculite (1:1:1) with 2 cm cocopeat layer at top of polybags is worth recommendable as both of highest performance of seedling growth of papaya and net returns (Rs 7401/1000 seedlings) which was significantly superior over rest of the treatments.