Standardization of foliar spray of nutrients, growth regulators and bio-stimulants for vegetative growth & multiplication of pot-Anthuriums

An experiment was conducted on potted-Anthuriums (dwarf potted varieties of Anthurium andraeanum) at Bio-Technology cum Tissue Culture Centre premises under All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Floriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar to study the effect of foliar spray of different nutrient solutions and growth regulators/bio-stimulants applied at varying frequency. The treatments include five number of nutrient solutions, viz. Liquid MS medium, macro and micronutrient mixture, NPK (19:19:19), NPK (10:20:20), and NPK (12:61:40) sprayed weekly (once and twice) along with six numbers of growth regulator solutions. The different growth regulators and bio-stimulants included Gibberellic acid (GA3), at 100 ppm and 200ppm (applied bimonthly), Benzyl Adenine (BA), at 50 ppm and 100 ppm (applied monthly) and humic acid, at 0.1% and 0.2% (applied monthly). The nutrient solutions of only NPK were sprayed at a concentration of 0.2% and supplemented by a fortnightly spray of micronutrient mixture solution of 0.2%. The result showed that spraying of macro and micronutrient mixture weekly once with GA3, at 200 ppm (applied bimonthly) resulted in the highest plant height (16.80 cm) and with humic acid 0.1% (applied monthly) produced maximum plant spread E-W direction (19.08 cm). Spraying of N:P: K (12:61:40), at 0.2% weekly once with Gibberellic acid 200 ppm (applied bimonthly) resulted in maximum plant spread (N-S direction) (20.45cm). A combination of N:P: K (12:61:40), at 0.2% weekly once with BA, at 100 ppm (applied monthly) resulted in the maximum number of suckers (5.44) and leaves (40.56). On average, application of 12:61:40, at 0.2% weekly once resulted in maximum plant spread (18.54cm, N-S) and highest number of suckers (4.67).