Maryam Mazaheri-Tirani

Various culture media contain a variety of materials that affect plant growth and development. Finding the best media culture among the various materials is thus critical to plant productivity. This study was conducted based on a completely randomized design using eight treatments and three replications. The treatments included the ratios 30:10:60 of perlite-vermicompost-coco peat, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat, coco peat- vermicompost-palm peat, perlite-vermicompost-palm peat, and the ratios 30:70 of peat moss-palm peat, coco peat-palm peat, perlite-palm peat, and vermicompost-palm peat. Cucumber seeds were planted in pots containing these culture media under greenhouse conditions. After the four-leaf stage, the morpho-physiological responses of the seedlings were evaluated. According to the findings, when compared to perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat increased shoot fresh weight by 5.5- fold, root fresh weight by 4.5-fold, root dry weight by 5.8-fold, shoot dry weight by 7-fold, stem diameter by 1.7-fold, shoot length by 2.3-fold, root length by 1.3-fold, and leaf area by 3.8-fold. However, compared to seedlings grown in peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat medium, the amount of auxin and reactive oxygen species decreased while total soluble sugars and peroxidase increased in perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium. Our findings indicate that the composition of peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat can be used as a beneficial medium to improve quality of cucumber seedling under greenhouse conditions.