EFFECT OF CARBONIZED RICE HULL, CHARCOAL, COCO PEAT AND EGGSHELL AS POTTING MEDIA ON THE GROWTH AND SURVIVAL OF DRAGON FRUIT (Hylocereus undatos) STEM CUTTINGS

This study was conducted to determine which media combination is most effective in the growth and survival of dragon fruit stem cuttings and to determine the percent survival of dragon fruit stem cuttings. This was conducted at the College of Agriculture Nursery Area at MSU-Fatima campus, from February 05 to May 05,2017. A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used in this study. There were five treatments and replicated three (3) times, consisted of five (5) samples in every replication and ten (10) cuttings each replication. The treatments used were the different potting media such as; T1 - Control (soil) T2 - Carbonized Rice Hull T3-Charcoal T4- Coco peat and T5-Egg shell.The treatments were replicated three times. The Results showed that the different potting media had significant effect only in root length of dragon fruit. Furthermore, the shoot emergence period, shoots emerged, number of roots and percent survival was not significantly affected by different potting media but coco peat showed potential as potting medium on dragon fruit stem cuttings.