Abstract

Lack of suitable variety as well as appropriate growth medium constitutes major problems to flower production. It is against this backdrop that a pot experiment was carried out in the Department of Crop and Soil Science Demonstration Plot, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria between April and May, 2013 to determine the growth responses of two varieties of Heliconia flowers to selected growth media. The experiment comprised of two Heliconia varieties (Jade and Golden Torch) and six (6) growth media namely, topsoil (control), river sand, coconut husk, topsoil + river sand (), topsoil + coconut husk () and river sand + coconut husk (). The experiment was in a 2×6 factorial arrangement fitted into a completely randomized design replicated thrice. Results showed that topsoil + coconut husk () performed best at 4WAP by producing the highest stem height (8.7 cm), stem girth (2.9 cm) number of leaves (3.3), leaf area (41.5 cm2) and longest root length (14.5) and more roots number (4.1) and this was followed by river sandcoconut husk (11) while the sole river sand gave the lowest vegetative traits. There was no significant difference on the vegetative parameters of the two varieties of Heliconia flowers and also on interaction. According to this experiment, topsoil + coconut husk () growth media is the better one for the growth of these Heliconia two varieties of flowers in the area of study. However, it needs more study on soil to recommend for farmers and the continual use of top soil as a candidate growth medium need to be discouraged because it is non-renewable hence, in the absence of top soil, river sand in combination with coconut husk () could serve as next available alternative.

Key words: Flowers, Golden Torch, growth, jade, media, responses, varieties.