Effect of different growing media on the growth and development of Dahlia (Dahlia pinnata) under the agro-climatic condition of Dera Ismail Khan.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different growing media on the growth and development of Dahlia (Dahlia pinnata). Seven different growing media including sand, silt, leaf mold, sand + silt, sand + leaf mold, silt + leaf mold and sand + silt + leaf mold, were used to check the growth and development of dahlia in pots. The over all best performance was recorded in media sand + silt + leaf mold for almost all the parameters; plant height (42.08 cm), stem thickness (1.93 cm), number of branches per plant (3.6), minimum days to flowering (91.66), number of flowers per plant (10.6), number of petals per flower (13), diameter of flower (8.8 cm) and vase life of flower (5 days). The media leaf mold alone also performed significantly well for all the parameters including the maximum 42.55 leaves per plant. Sand, when used alone as a growing medium showed the least response and provided unsatisfactory results for all the parameters.