Standardization of pit size and organic filling mixture for raising tissue cultured date palm in hot arid region of western Rajasthan

Abstract

The study aims to provide comprehensive guidelines for optimizing pit size and the composition of filling mixtures, thereby fostering the growth, root development and overall health of tissue cultured Barhee date palm cultivars. The experiment was undertaken in 2019- 2021 at the ICAR-Central Institute for Arid Horticulture research farm located in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. Fully hardened tissue-cultured saplings of the Barhee cultivar of date palm were planted with a spacing of 5 x 5 m in the month of July. Different planting pit sizes (1.0 m x 1.0 m x 1.0 m, 0.75 m x 0.75 m x 0.75 m, and 0.50 m x 0.50 m x 0.50 m) and filling mixtures of field soil, clay and FYM (1.0: 1.0:1.0, 2.0:0.5:0.5, 0.5:2.0:0.5 and 0.5:0.5:2.0) were used as treatment combinations for evaluating the growth of plants. The results indicated that tissue-cultured plants of the Barhee cultivar raised in a pit size of 1 m³ with a filling mixture of field soil, clay, and FYM in the ratio of 0.5:0.5:2.0 performed better.