Growth and yield performance of salad cucumber (Cucumis Sativus. L) cultivated in novel potting mix enriched with recycled plant tissue culture media

Abstract

Plant tissue culture media waste contains large quantities of essential macro- and micronutrients that are beneficial for commercial plant growth and development. This study explored an environmentally sustainable approach to manage Banana Tissue Culture Waste Media (BTCWM) by incorporating it into a novel growing medium for cultivating salad cucumber (cv. Bonafide F1). A greenhouse experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design with seven different treatments with fifteen replications namely T1 control { 100% coconut coir dust (CD)}, T2 (BTCWM 50%+ CD 40% + sand 10%), T3(BTCWM 40%+ CD 50% + sand 10%), T4 (BTCWM 30% + CD 50% + sand 20%), T5 (BTCWM 20%+ CD 50% + sand 30%), T6 ( BTCWM 10%+ CD 50% + sand 40%), T7 (BTCWM 50%+ CD 50%). Our results showed that plant growth varied significantly across treatments. At 11 weeks after planting, T4 and T7 produced the longest vine lengths (871 cm), while T1 had the shortest (860 cm). T7 also demonstrated the highest leaf diameter (25.5cm) and vine diameter (5.9cm) than that of T1 and T2. At the 7 WAP, T7 and T5 exhibited the highest flower production rates, with 8.3 and 7.4 flowers per week respectively, surpassing the control (5.1/week). Subsequently, T7 also led in fruit weight (50.4 g/fruit), followed by T5 (49.2 g/fruit), while the control produced the lowest (29.2 g/fruit). Among all treatments, T7 (50% BTCWM + 50% coir dust) showed the most promising results, suggesting that the plant tissue culture waste media can be utilized in promoting salad cucumber production.