Performance of a new superabsorbent polymer on seedling and post planting growth and Water use pattern of chrysanthemum grown under controlled environment

Water plays a critical role in nurseries for vegetative propagation of plants under greenhouse conditions. In view of the low water use efficiency in the growing medium, leaching of nutrients and hassles of frequent irrigation, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of a newly developed eco-friendly crosslinked hydrogel. Observations were made on seedling growth, post planting behaviour and water use pattern of self rooted cuttings of chrysanthemum cv. Yellow Bouque grown under greenhouse conditions in soilless medium (mixture of coir husk, vermiculite and perlite in ratio of 6:1:1) amended with four rates of hydrogel (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% wt/wt). Medium amended with 0.5% hydrogel took minimum time of 18 days as compared to control (28 days), 1.0% (20 days), 1.5% (22 days) and 2.0% (22 days) to produce better quality seedlings. In terms of growth parameters of the established seedlings, 0.5% treatment produced maximum mean plant height (19.5 cm), root area (38.2 cm2), fresh root weight (5.6 g/plant) and fresh shoot weight (11.5 g/plant). After transplantation in soil, the growth behaviour of established seedlings showed similar trend with 0.5% treatment exhibiting most prominent growth with plant height (84.0 cm), stem diameter (1.1 cm), number of lateral branches (4.8), number of leaves/plant (102.6), number of flowers/plant (13.6), and flower size (20.6 cm2) as compared to control. Frequency of fertigation was effectively reduced to 4 in 0.5% and 1.0% amendments as compared to 10 irrigations in control, to raise nursery of healthy seedlings.