effect of growing media on the vegetative growth process of f1 and f2 tomato varieties

ziba kazemi 1, abolghasem hasanpoor 2* department of horticultural science, agriculture and natural faculty, isfahan (khorasgan) branch, islamic azad university, isfahan, iran iranian plant protection research institut iran tehran * corresponding author email: [email protected] received:5 june 2015                                                                          accepted: 21 june 2015 abstract nowadays, soilless cultivation as a modern technology for plant production with the objective of increasing quality and quantity of horticultural crops has been increasing developed. this research project was conducted to investigate the effect of perlite, cocopeat, and sand on the vegetative growth indices of tomato varieties goldi, santella and vay using f1 and f2 generations. results indicated that the highest plant total volume and weight, root wet weight and aerial parts in the second stage were obtained in 70% cocopeat + 30% perlite media for santell f1 avariety. while the highest leaf area was obtained in 70% cocopeat + 30% perlite media for f2 vay variety. the highest stem dimeter in the second measurement was obtained in 40% cocopeat + 40% perlite + 20% sand media for f1 vay. regarding some of the characteristics, only the simple effect of the tomato varieties and growing media were significant. growing media containing more cocopeat, through providing more appropriate conditions led to better growth and development.