Effect of Sowing Media and Gibberellic Acid on the Seedling Establishment and Growth of <i>Bougainvillea glabra, Ixora coccinea</i> and <i>Rosa chinensis</i>. 1: Shoot Characters

Abstract

Two pot experiments were carried out in the screen house of the Faculty of Agriculture Bayero University Kano (Latitudes 80 421N and 90301N) during the wet and dry seasons of 2008/2009 to investigate the effects of Sowing Media and Gibberellic acid(GA₃) concentrations on the seedling establishment and growth of three ornamental plant species. The treatments consisted of three sowing media (Top soil TS, mixtures of Top soil plus Poultry manure TS+PM and Top soil plus Sawdust TS+SD) in the ratio of 2:1, three GA₃ concentrations (0, 100 and 200ppm) and three plant species (Bougainvillea, Ixora and Rose); factorially combined and laid out in a completely randomized design with four repetitions. The results indicated that TS and TS+SD gave significantly (P<0.05) greater number of days to bud break, leaf area, leaf fresh weight and leaf dry weight per plant. Application of GA₃ at 100ppm gave higher value of all the characters studied except number of days to bud break, where no significant difference was observed among the different concentrations. Bougainvillea was significantly (P<0.05) higher than the other plants in all the characters except days to bud break. The Combination of TS+SD medium and GA3 at 100ppm concentration is recommended for the good growth and development of the shoot characters.

Keywords: Gibberellic Acid, Sowing Media, Bougainvillea glabra, Ixora coccinea, Rosa chinensis