International Journal of Environment and Climate Change

The present experiment was carried out to investigate the response of washing and non- washing of seeds on growth of papaya seedling at the CRC Farm, ITM University, Gwalior (M.P.). The experiment was set up in the Randomized Block Design using 4 media with or without washing of seeds with tap water comprising 12 treatments combinations (viz., controlled (soil + water), vermiwash (50%) + wood dust, vermiwash (50%) + cocopeat, vermiwash (50%) + pond soil, cow-urine (50%) + wood dust, cow-urine (50%) + cocopeat, cow-urine (50%) + pond soil,  vermiwash (100%) + wood dust, vermiwash (100%) + cocopeat, vermiwash (100%) + pond soil,  cow-urine (100%) + wood dust, cow-urine (100%) + cocopeat,  cow-urine (100%) + pond soil which were replicated thrice. For experimental purpose, freshly ripe fruits of papaya were purchased from the papaya-growing farmer of IARI, New Delhi and seeds were sown in the poly bag (4x24 inch sized). The results indicated that the application of application of Vermiwash (100%) + pond soil recorded maximum height of seedling (cm), number of leaves per seedling, stem diameter (cm), leaf area (158.41 cm²), fresh weight of seedling (8.49g), dry weight of seedling (1.17 g), dry weight of shoot (0.334g), dry weight of root (0.779), root/shoot ratio (2.34)  as compared to without washing of seeds and other rooting media. Thus, application of Vermiwash (100%) + pond soil was found to the best treatment among all the treatments and it gave the maximum growth attributes which will inturn improve the yield of papaya.