EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT AMENDED ORGANIC MEDIA ON THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF VINCA ROSEA ‘VICTORY’

An experiment titled effects of different amended organic media on the growth and development of Vinca rosea ‘Victory’ was conducted during 2007 at Ornamental Nursery of Horticulture Department, KPK Agricultural University Peshawar. Rooted cuttings of vinca were planted in 20 cm clay pots containing 3 types of growing media i.e. control (silt, garden soil and farmyard manure at 1:1:1), leaf mould (leaf mould + silt at 1:1) and mushroom compost (spent mushroom compost + silt at 1:1). The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with four replications. Data were recorded for various growth and development parameters of vinca plants. When parameters of plants in mushroom media were compared (at α = 0.05) with those in control, the plants grown in mushroom compost growing media produced significantly higher leaf area (596.1 cm^2), leaf fresh weight (81.3 g), shoot fresh weight (132.5 g), shoot dry weight (22.1 g), root fresh weight (29.3 g) and root dry weight (4.5 g), and took minimum days to sprouting (11.0). On the other hand, plants grown in control medium produced higher number of branches (5.05). Overall, mushroom compost proved to be the best for Vinca rosea ‘Victory’ production.