Impact of Soilless Cultivation Method and Typ...

Impact of Soilless Cultivation Method and Type of Nutrients Applied on the Growth and Accumulation of Bioactive Molecules in Withania Somnifera L.

Author Name : Monika Sharma, A.C. Raghuvanshi, Tejovathi Gudipati

ABSTRACT Soil less cultivation, also known as ‘Hydroponics’, is an effective alternate method of growing plants without using soil. Today, hydroponics is an established branch of agronomy, is the fastest growing sector of agriculture and has been successfully applied for the commercial cultivation of number of crops. In the present study, we used grow bags with cocopeat as growth medium and applied 6 different nutrient mixtures (Hoagland solution, Hydroponic Nutrient mix, MS nutrients, Syngenta and composted plant extract) for fertigation of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L.) in the next house. Vermicompost was also applied as nutrient supplement in different concentrations (50%, 25%, 12,5% and 5%) with cocopeat. Shoot & root lengths (cm) and fresh & dry weights (mg/gdw); levels of proteins, carbohydrates, alkaloids saponins, flavonoids, sterols, phenols, and Withanolides were analyzed in the harvested roots. The growth of the Withania plants in grow bags was good and profuse. They matured in 100-120 days as compared to conventional method (150-180 days). Ashwagandha demonstrated good growth on MS nutrients, Hoagland solution and Syngenta organic and vermicompost at 25% (CV2) followed by 50% (CV1) resulted significantly high growth both yield and concentration of bioactive molecules compared to control in grow bags method of soilless cultivation.