EFFECT OF DIFFERENT GROWING MEDIA ON BASIL VARIETIES IN SIMULATED INDOOR VERTICAL FARM

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted in the indoor farm of Dr. M. Wazed Mia Central Laboratory, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from November 2020 to

April 2021 to evaluate the effect of growing media on basil varieties in simulated indoor vertical

farm. The experiment consisted of two factors; Factor A: Growing media (3 levels) as- M 1 - cocopeat (20%) + vermicompost (70%) + soil (10%), M 2 - vermicompost (90%) + soil (10%), M 3 -

biochar (10%) + vermicompost (80%) + soil (10%) and Factor B: Variety (2 levels) as- V 1 - Italian

sweet basil and V 2 - Holy basil. The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete

Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Different growing media and varieties significantly influenced on different growth, yield parameter and nutrients of basil. In case of growing

media, the highest plant height (39.08 cm), the number of leaves/plant (86.67), the length of leaf

(9.37 cm), leaf breadth (5.33 cm), fresh weight (147.83 g) and dry weight (69.62 g), oil content

(1.23%) were found from M 1

and those were minimum in M 3 . Considering the varieties, V 2

produced the highest plant (33.26 cm), leaf number (68.11), fresh weight (127.76 g) and dry weight

(54.57 g). Moreover,

the highest length of leaf (9.92 cm), leaf breadth (5.72 cm), essential oil content (1.17%) were from V 1 . Regarding the combined effect, the highest plant height (43.60 cm), leaf number (100.33), fresh weight (159.49 g) and dry weight (74.78 g) were observed from M 1 V 2 and the lowest plant height (16.27 cm), fresh weight (90.09 g) and dry weight (23.46 g) were observed from M 3 V 1 . However, M 1 gave highest results in P (1.11%), K (1.93%), Na (0.68%) and S (0.67%) and M 3 gave the lowest results. In variety, P (0.92%) and S (0.63%) content were highest in V 1 , lowest in V 2 . Furthermore, K (1.62%) and Na (0.63%) content were highest in V 2 , lowest in V 1 . In combination, the maximum P (1.3%), and S (0.71%) content in basil were found in M 1 V 1 ; minimum P in M 3 V 2 and S in M 3 V 2 . On the contrary, Maximum K (2.2%) and Na (0.76%) were found in M 1 V 2 , minimum in M 3 V 1 . The results showed that the use of vermicompost with cocopeat increased the growth, oil and nutrients in both basils.