International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.6, 267-278 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 272 Vermicompost (2399.17), both of which were statistically superior and represented the most vigorous seedlings. Vermicompost + Soil (2027.71) and Vermicompost + Cocopeat (1911) also showed relatively high vigor, though statistically lower than Cocopeat + Soil + Vermicompost and Vermicompost + FYM + Soil + Cocopeat. On the contrary, the lowest vigor index was noted in Cocopeat (1199.68), followed by Vermicompost (1498.74) and Soil (1502.26). These results indicate that while Soil had the highest germination speed, it did not translate into greater seedling vigor. The CV was 6.9%, and the SEM and LSD values were 114.0 and 240.6, respectively, indicating good precision and separation among treatment means. 3.2 Effect of growing media on seedling parameters The results showed that growing media had a significant influence on various seedling parameters of tomato (Table 3; Table 4; Table 5). Notable differences were observed in stem diameter, number of leaves, root and shoot length, as well as fresh and dry weight of seedlings, indicating that the type of media plays a vital role in promoting vigorous and healthy seedling development. Table 3 Effect of growing media on the stem diameter and number of leaves of tomato Treatments Stem diameter (cm) Number of leaves 10DAS 20DAS 30DAS 10DAS 20DAS 30DAS T1 0.236a 0.3ab 0.34a 5.400g 7.47f 9.93e T2 0.173b 0.22b 0.32a 6.200f 8.50e 12.40de T3 0.213ab 0.26ab 0.336a 7.433e 9.47d 12.60de T4 0.19ab 0.286ab 0.35a 9.600c 11.60c 16.47cd T5 0.16b 0.243ab 0.33a 6.500f 9.40d 16.00cd T6 0.233a 0.293ab 0.333a 8.533d 12.47b 17.10bc T7 0.206ab 0.283ab 0.333a 8.133d 9.83d 14.60cd T8 0.216ab 0.34a 0.36a 12.10a 15.77a 19.70ab T9 0.206ab 0.293ab 0.343a 10.400b 15.0a 21.87a Grandmean 0.204 0.280 0.338 8.256 11.06 15.63 CV% 17.7 18.3 17.7 5.6 7.4 13.2 SEM(±) 0.42 0.44 0.44 0.67 0.74 2.20 LSD(0.05) 0.452 0.497 0.497 0.971 1.134 4.186 F test * NS NS ** ** ** Note: ***Significant at 0.1 % level of significance, **Significant at 1% level of significance, *Significant at 5 % level of significance, DAS: Day After Sowing, CV: Coefficient of variance, SEM: standard error mean Table 4 Effect of growing media on root and shoot length of tomato Treatments Root length Shoot length 10DAS 20DAS 30DAS 10DAS 20DAS 30DAS T1 4.603e 6.817f 8.867d 6.02c 6.800d 8.897b T2 5.91d 8.703d 9.92c 6.993bc 7.403cd 9.603b T3 7.897b 9.35bc 10.84bc 7.73b 8.850b 11.35b T4 7.57b 8.79d 9.96c 7.853b 8.443bc 10.75b T5 6.763c 7.78e 10.03bc 6.897bc 7.893bcd 10.453b T6 8.053b 8.87cd 10.987b 7.673b 8.357bc 10.887b T7 7.64b 9.61b 10.373bc 7.513b 8.093bcd 11.213b T8 8.037b 9.073cd 10.42bc 9.133a 10.100a 14.347a T9 9.773a 10.73a 12.467a 9.507a 10.747a 13.823a Grandmean 7.36 8.85 10.42 7.20 8.52 11.25 CV% 4.6 3.9 6.1 8.6 8.7 13.6 SEM(±) 0.51 0.52 0.72 0.78 0.88 1.36 LSD(0.05) 0.752 0.764 1.19 1.328 1.531 2.532 F test ** ** ** ** ** ** Note: ***Significant at 0.1 % level of significance, **Significant at 1% level of significance, *Significant at 5 % level of significance, DAS: Day After Sowing, CV: Coefficient of variance, SEM: standard error mean
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