Effects of different levels of IBA and various growing media on production of quality planting material in Dragon Fruit (Hylocereus undatus L.)
The field experiment was conducted during the period of August, 2021 to November, 2021 at the Department of Horticulture, S.K.N. College of Agriculture (Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University) Jobner, Rajasthan, India to explore how varying concentrations of IBA and different growing media influence the development of robust and high-quality planting materials. The design of experiment was Factorial CRD with three replications consisting of sixteen treatment combinations including IBA concentrations (control, 2000, 4000 and 6000 ppm) and various growing media compositions (1:1:1) by volume. The results demonstrated that dragon fruit cuttings treated with 6000 ppm of IBA displayed enhanced root characteristics, including early root initiation (15.06 days), maximum percent of rooted cuttings (85.88), longest root length (20.60 cm), average root length (13.52 cm), root diameter (1.38 mm), average number of roots cutting-1 (22.15), fresh (2.18 g) and dry (0.63 g) root weight. The application of sand : vermicompost: cocopeat (1:1:1) showed significantly higher results for root parameters viz., minimum days required for root initiation (15.04 ), maximum percent of rooted cuttings (85.81), longest root length (20.05 cm), average root length (13.28 cm), root diameter (1.35 mm), average number of roots cutting-1 (22.16), fresh (2.19 g) and dry (0.64 g) root weight at 75 days post- planting. The dragon fruit cuttings treated with 6000 ppm of IBA and grown in sand: vermicompost: cocopeat (1:1:1) media proved significantly superior combined treatment in maximum (17.14 cm) average root length.