Effect of plant density and culture media on some growth characteristics of stock plant (Mathiola incana R.Br)‎

Abstract EN

The present study was conducted in the greenhouse of Horticultural Department / Agricultural College/ Dohuk University during the growing season 2009- 2010.

The study consists of testing the effects of two plant densities of stock plant (Mathiola incana R.

Br.) (2 and 4 plants / pot) and four different cultural media (sand, loam, peat moss and analyzed animal manure).

The first density (2 plants / pot) appeared a significant superiority on the second density (4 plants / pot) in the vegetative characteristics (plant heights, number of branches, stem diameter, leaves number, dry weight of vegetative growth and chlorophyll percentage), as well as the flowering characteristics (number of flowers, length of flower spike) and length of roots.

While the second plant density (4 plants / pot) was better in giving the highest dry weight of roots, the animal manure and peat moss medium gave significant superiority on the others media in all studied features.

The interaction between planting densities and growth media also appeared significant differences in all the studied features.

The interaction between the first density and the peatmoss and animal manure media gave the best results for all studied features.