Manjita Tiwari¹ , Binayak Sigdel¹ , Prapti Ghimire¹ , Bishal Shrestha²

1 Faculty of Agriculture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, 44200, Nepal
2 Department of Horticulture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal, 44200, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0022
Received: 08 May, 2025    Accepted: 10 Sep., 2025    Published: 02 Oct., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Tiwari M., Sigdel B., Ghimire P., and Shrestha B., 2025, Effect of growing media on germination and seedling characteristics of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum c.v. Srijana) in Kaski district, International Journal of Horticulture, 15(5): 208-217 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0022)

In Nepal, the quality of tomato seedlings is generally low, which often limits overall crop productivity. The use of suitable growing media is crucial for improving seedling performance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of seven different growing media combinations on seed germination and seedling growth of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) to identify the most suitable medium for producing quality seedlings. The experiment was conducted at the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Kaski, using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. The seven treatments included: T₁ - soil (control), T₂ - cocopeat + vermicompost (1:1), T₃ - cocopeat + perlite (1:1), T₄ - soil + vermicompost (1:1), T₅ - soil + FYM (1:1), T₆ - soil + cocopeat (1:1), and T₇ - conventional medium (soil + sand + FYM in 1:1:1). Among all treatments, T₂ (cocopeat + vermicompost) consistently produced the most robust seedlings, with the highest seedling length (20.44 cm), number of leaves (13.8), fresh weight (1.56 g), and dry weight (0.192 g). Although some traits showed maximum values in other media, T₂ outperformed overall in terms of seedling vigor and plant stand percentage (98.58%). Based on these findings, a combination of cocopeat and vermicompost (1:1) is recommended as an optimal growing medium for tomato seedling production under mid-hill conditions in Nepal, due to its effectiveness in enhancing seedling quality.

Tomato; Growing media; Seedling vigor; Germination