Growth and Flowering Response of Petunia to Different Growing Media

Advancing Pakistan's floriculture sector is a crucial need of the time and also essential for promoting sustainable ornamental plant production. This study was conducted at Sindh Agriculture University's Horticulture Garden Tandojam (2021-2022), aimed to evaluate the impact of organic manures on the growth and flowering performance of petunia cultivars. Two Petunia genotypes Limelight and Prism Suns were planted in six different growing media compositions viz Canal silt + FYM (3:1), Canal silt + Poultry manure (3:1), Canal silt + Poultry manure + FYM (3:1:1), Canal silt + Poultry manure + FYM (2:1:1), Canal silt + Poultry manure + FYM (1:1:1) under Completely Randomized Design (CRD) using three replicates. Results were examined for Plant height and spread (cm), branches count, days to withering, flowering, and full bloom, number of flowers, and flowering duration. Different growing media compositions had highly significant effect on growth and flowering related attributes of petunia. It was observed that growing media having Canal silt + Poultry manure + FYM (2:1:1) showed maximum results for all vegetative and flowering attributes. Plants grown in the growing medium having a mixture of canal silt+ Poultry manure+ FYM had better height with significantly maximum spread and branches. Plants grown in the same growing medium had also positive and significant influence on flowering traits and showed earlier flowering and significantly had a maximum blooming period in comparison with rest of the growing media. In case of varieties. Prism Suns significantly performed better in comparison with its counterpart variety for most of the vegetative and flowering related attributes. In conclusion, the growing media composition of Canal silt + Poultry manure + FYM (2:1:1), significantly enhanced the growth and flowering potential of Petunia, with the Prism Suns cultivar demonstrating superior performance.