EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT GROWING ENVIRONMENTS AND BLACK vs. TRANSPARENT POLYTHENE TUBES ON THE GROWTH OF TEA SEEDLINGS

This experiment was conducted at National Tea Research Institute (NTRI), Shinkiari, Mansehra during 2005-06 with the objectives to find and recommend the most suitable growing environment with a better combination of polythene tube colour i.e. black or transparent for the successful raising of tea seedlings. Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) seedlings were raised in polythene tubes (black and transparent) under five different growing environments i.e. open sunlight, open sunlight + transparent plastic sheet, live shade, nylon net shade and nylon net shade + transparent plastic sheet. It was found that germination %age (95.50), survival %age (83.50), plant height (37.68 cm), number of leaves per plant (16.95), root length (13.33 cm), fresh plant weight (14.63 g) and dry plant weight (6.60 g) was highest in nylon net shade + transparent plastic sheet as compared to the other growing environments. Seeds sown under live shade took maximum days (175.33) to germination while minimum days to germination (142.61) were recorded in the open sunlight + transparent plastic sheet treatment. The differences between the seedlings grown in the black and transparent polythene tubes as well as the interaction between the environments x polythene tubes colour were non-significant for the above mentioned plant growth parameters, however black polythene tubes gave higher survival %age (65.33), plant height (23.39 cm) and root length (10.95 cm) as compared to the transparent polythene tubes having 64.33%, 23.26 cm and 9.73 cm survival %age, plant height and root length respectively. On the basis of these findings it is concluded that tea seedling nursery can be raised more successfully under nylon net shade + transparent plastic sheet by using black polythene tubes.