Abstract
Myrica esculenta Buch. -Ham. ex D. Don is a multipurpose, economically important plant belongs to family Myricaceae, well recognized for its medicinally therapeutic utilization in ancient Ayurveda and Unani system of medicine. Horticulturally, Fruits are edible and rich source of vitamin C & antioxidants. This is a slow-growing species and becoming endangered in The Himalayan region due to loss of natural habitat and anthropogenic activities. The hard seed coat creating the physical dormancy along with slow root growth in traditional polybag under nursery condition are the major concern in the growth and development of seedlings of this species. The combined performance of pre-sowing seed treatments, growing media and root trainers of different size in the production of seedlings of Myrica esculenta by soaking the seeds in beejamrita for varying periods (2 and 3 weeks) followed by sowing in different sized root trainers containing different media, have a profound effect on growth, biomass and quality parameters of the seedlings. The best result in germination and growth was recorded in seeds treated with beejamrita solution for 3 weeks and subsequently sown in root trainer of 250 cc containing growing media consisting soil + sand + vermicompost in ratio 1:1:1. Among various treatment combinations, seedlings raised under above treatment combination resulted maximum value for every growth parameter including shoot length (9.92 cm), collar diameter (1.56 mm), number of leaves (15), leaf area (9.70 cm2), root length (20.38 cm), number of secondary roots (20) and root thickness (2.07). All the seedling biomass parameters and quality parameters were recorded highest in the same treatment combination only. The results indicated that seedlings raised in the above-mentioned treatment combination was outperformed the best for production of quality seedlings of Myrica esculenta under nursery condition.