Effect of different potting media on vegetative growth and flower yield of Calendula (Calendula officinalis L.)

Introduction

The growing demand for ornamental plants and increasing urbanization have encouraged the use of potted flowering plants for decorating homes, balconies, terraces, offices, hotels and other urban spaces. Pot culture offers an efficient and flexible method of growing flowering plants where availability of land is limited and expanding opportunities for beautification of ornamental landscaping. Their attractive appearance, portability and suitability for make them an important choice for enhancing the aesthetic value of indoor and outdoor environments. Moreover, the production of flowering plants in pots offers opportunities for value addition, ready-to-display plant sales and small-scale as well as commercial ornamental plant enterprises. Among potted flowering crops, calendula (Calendula officinalis L.) is an annual herb belonging to the family asteraceae and is native to the Mediterranean region. It grows well under cool climatic conditions with moderate sunlight and well-drained soil (Mohammad and Kashani, 2012 (Annonymous, 2012; Mohammad et al., 2012)) [1,2] . It is an important ornamental and medicinal plant valued for its attractive yellow to orange flowers and diverse applications in floriculture, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, culinary products and also used for ornamentation, garland making, landscaping, natural colouring and culinary garnishing, while its extracts possess anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiseptic and wound-healing properties (Golestani et al., 2013 (Anuje et al., 2004) [3] ; Arora et al., 2013 [4] ; Lohani et al., 2019 (Arunesh et al., 2020) [5] ; Szopa et al., 2020 (Atiyeh et al., 2000) [6] ) [7,4,8,9] . The major problems associated with the use of conventional soilbased potting media in pots often results in poor water retention, low microbial activity and inadequate aeration, cause poor germination, weak seedlings, delayed/inferior flowering and limit the commercial potential of calendula pot cultivation. These constraints can be effectively overcome through the standardization of suitable potting media combinations. According to Vendrame et al. (2005) [10,11] , the growing substrate plays a vital role in determining the quality of pot-grown plants. Various growing materials such as garden soil, sand, vermicompost, enriched vermicompost and cocopeat can be combined in different proportions to improve the physical, chemical and biological properties by ensuring adequate drainage, aeration, water retention, nutrient availability thereby the potting media enhance the plant growth, flower and yield (Khan et al., 2006) [12,13] ; Annonymous, 2012 (Deogade et al., 2020) [14] ; Singh et al., 2015 (Golestani et al., 2013) [7] ). Garden soil provides physical support and essential mineral nutrients, while sand improves drainage, aeration and structural stability. Vermicompost enhances porosity, water-holding capacity, nutrient availability and microbial activity (Atiyeh et al., 2000 (Gupta et al., 2024) [15] ) [6] . Cocopeat improves water retention, porosity and aeration and contributes to nutrient retention through its cation exchange capacity. Enriched vermicompost enhances beneficial microbial activity and nutrient availability, thereby supporting a favourable root zone and promoting plant growth and flower yield.

Materials and methods

The experiment was conducted at the Horticultural Research Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.), during the Rabi season of 2025-26. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with eight treatments and three replications. The treatments comprised T 0 Garden soil (control), T 1 Garden soil + Sand + Vermicompost (2:1:1), T 2 Garden soil + Sand + Vermicompost (3:1:1), T 3 Garden soil + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost (2:1:1), T 4 Garden soil + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost (3:1:1), T 5 Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost (2:1:1), T 6 Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost (2:1:2) and T 7 Garden soil + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost + Cocopeat (1:1:1:1). All potting media were prepared by thoroughly mixing the respective components in the prescribed proportions on a volume basis (v/v). Uniform and healthy (Calendula officinalis L.) seedlings are planted into pots filled with the respective potting media on 31 st December 2025. Throughout the crop period, all the necessary cultural practices were followed. For recording vegetative growth and flowering observations, Five plants per treatment were randomly selected and tagged at 30, 60 and 90 days after planting (DAP). Observations were taken viz., Plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, stem diameter (mm), days to opening of first flower bud, days to 50% flowering, number of flowers per plant, diameter of fully opened flower (cm), flowering duration, and yield of flower per plant (g). The recorded observations were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate for a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Treatment means were compared using the critical difference (CD) at the 5% level of significance and standard error of mean (SEm).

Results and discussion

Vegetative parameters

Plant height (cm) -Plant height was significantly influenced by different potting media at 30, 60 and 90 DAP and were presented in Table 1. Among the treatment T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) recorded the maximum plant height at 30

Flower diameter Flower yield

Number of branches per plant

Number of leaves per plant

Flowering parameters

Days to opening of first flower bud -Days to opening of the first flower bud were significantly affected by different potting media as depicted in Table 3. The treatment T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) recorded the minimum days (41.00) followed by T 5 (44.00 days), while the maximum (60.40 days) was recorded in T 0 (Garden soil). The superior performance of T 6 might bbe due to favourable growing conditions of media, which supported healthy root development, moisture and nutrients, and better plant growth. These conditions may have encouraged earlier bud development and resulted in earlier opening of the first flower. The similar findings were in close conformity with Kiran et al. (2007) [21,22] in dahlia, Anuje et al. (2008) [26] in gerbera, Panj et al. (2012) [2,27] in gerbera and Khan et al. (2020) [21,28] in marigold. Days to 50% flowering -Days to 50% flowering were significantly varied with different potting media as depicted in Table 3. Among the treatments T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) recorded the minimum days (51.80) followed by T 5 (54.40 days), while the maximum (72.73 days) was recorded in T 0 (Garden soil). The earlier 50% flowering in T 6 may be due to balanced nutrient availability, favourable moisture conditions, and better root environment which enhanced physiological processes and promoted early flowering. Similar results were also obtained with the findings of Mehmood et al. (2013) [26,27] in antirhinum, Sahu et al. (2023) [20,29] in calendula and Kala et al. (2020) [16,29] in pot mum chrysanthemum. Number of flowers per plant -Number of flowers per plant was significantly influenced by different potting media as depicted in Table 3. The treatment T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) recorded the maximum number of flowers (67.00) followed by T 5 (62.33), while the minimum was recorded in T 0 (Garden soil). The superior performance of T 6 might be due to better nutrient availability, favourable moisture conditions and improved root development, which promoted greater flower bud formation and higher flower production. Similar findings were also reported by Sangwan et al. (2010) [30] in marigold, Kareem et al. (2014) [18,8] in calendula, Kameshwari et al. (2017) [31] in chrysanthemum, Padhiyar et al. (2017) [9] in marigold, Lokhande et al. (2019) [25,11] in marigold. Diameter of fully opened flower (cm) -Flower diameter was significantly affected by different potting media as presented in Table 3. The highest flower diameter (5.977 cm) was recorded in T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) followed by T 5 (5.627 cm), whereas T 0 (Garden soil) recorded the lowest flower diameter (2.973 cm). The increased flower diameter under T 6 might be due to improved nutrient availability and better root development, which supported efficient uptake of nutrients and greater accumulation of photosynthates, and flower growth, resulting in larger blooms. Similar results were found in the findings of Sangwan et al. (2010) [30] in marigold and Kumar et al. (2022) [24,2] in calendula. Flowering duration (days) -Flowering duration was significantly affected by different potting media as presented in Table 3. Among the treatment T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, was recorded the maximum flowering duration (64.13 days), followed by T 5 (61.53 days), whereas the minimum (42.40 days) was recorded in T 0 (Garden soil). The prolonged flowering in T 6 might be due to the favourable condition of the growing media and plant growth, which encouraged successive production and development of flower buds and maintained flowering over a longer period. A similar trend was also reported by Kameshwari et al. (2014) [17,31] in chrysanthemum, Kiran et al. (2007) [21,22] in dahlia and Khan et al. (2020) [21,28] in marigold under different potting media.

Yield parameters

Flower yield per plant (g) -Flower yield per plant was significantly influenced by different potting media were presented in Table 3. The highest flower yield (414.20 g) was recorded in T 6 (Cocopeat + Sand + Enriched Vermicompost, 2:1:2) followed by T 5 (366.00 g) and T 3 (343.53 g), whereas the minimum (180.10 g) was recorded in T 0 (Garden soil). The superior performance of T 6 may be attributed due to favourable physical, chemical and organic matter content of the growing media, which supported vigorous vegetative growth with greater plant height, leaf production and branching, which provided a stronger plant framework for flower production and contributed to higher flower yield. These observations are supported by the similar findings of Mehmood et al. (2010) [27] in marigold and Lokhande et al. (2019) [25,11] in marigold.

Conclusions

The study demonstrated that potting media composition significantly influenced the growth, flowering and flower yield of Calendula (Calendula officinalis L.). Among the treatments, T

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementThe first author extends heartfelt gratitude to the Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), for generously providing the facilities and support necessary to carry out this research work journey. Profound appreciation is expressed to the Major Advisor, Dr. Pooja Gupta, Assistant Professor, Dr. L. S. Verma, Head of the Department and the Advisory Committee members-Dr. S. K. Tamrakar, Dr. Diptimayee Das, and Dr. M. K. Pradhan for invaluable guidance, constant encouragement, constructive suggestions and kind support throughout the course of my research work. The constant cooperation and assistance rendered by the farm staff of the Horticultural Nursery throughout the course of this research are gratefully acknowledged. The first author also sincerely appreciate my family members and roommates for their valuable assistance, guidance and constant encouragement.

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32. How to cite this article: Gendre N, Gupta P, Tamrakar SK, Dahariya S. Effect of different potting media on vegetative growth and flower yield of Calendula (Calendula officinalis L.). International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research. 2026;SP-10(9):2062-2067. doi: https://www.doi.org/10.33545/26 174693.2026.v10.i9Sz.10107