Effect of different organic growing mediums and application of biofertilizer in organic seedling production

Current study was done for evaluation the effect of different growing media and biofertilizer application on seedling quality. The research was conducted on tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in a greenhouse of General Directorate of Agriculture, Zakho city, Duhok Governorate, Northern Iraq during the spring season of 2021. In the experiment, the 6 growing medias (M1: Soil + sand + sheep manure (1:1:1), M2: Compost, M3: Peat moss, M4: Soil + chicken manure (1:1), M5: Soil + sheep manure (1:1), and M6: Peat moss + compost (1:1)) and 2 doses (0 and 10 g L-1) biofertilizer applications were tried. The data analysis revealed that the growing mediums and biofertilizer applications significantly affected seed germination rate, the seed germination speed and vegetative growth parameters such as number of leaves, stem diameter, chlorophyll index, shoot fresh weight and fresh weight of roots. Moreover, the leaf mineral content of N, P, and K was importantly affected by the growing medium and the biofertilizer. The results showed that biofertilizer application can improve the seedling quality in production of organic seedling. The peat moss medium produced the best seedling quality compared to other mediums.