Evaluation of Nutrient Uptake and Flowering of ‎Gerbera in Response of Various Growing Media

This experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of different growing media on nutrient uptake and yield of gerbera flower under soilless culture system. The experiment was performed using 10 treatments as follows: fine sand, peat+fine sand (25%+75%), peat+fine sand (50%+50%), perlite+peat (75%+25%), perlite+peat (50%+50%), perlite+peat (25%+75%), perlite+peat+expanded clay (25%+70%+5%), perlite+peat+ expanded clay (50%+25%+25%), perlite+peat+expanded clay (25%+50%+25%), peat+expanded clay (50%+50%), in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results indicated that planting beds had a statistically significant effect on the morphological characteristics and macro and micronutrients in plants. Media containing perlite (25%) + peat (70%) + expanded clay (5%) led to higher flower number (207 m²/year), flower disk diameter (12.4 cm), shoot diameter (0.8 cm), shoot neck diameter (0.58 cm), flower height (54.5 cm), and vase life (11.6 days). Plants growing in this treatment, showed the highest levels of mineral nutrients in their leaves, as concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were 4.17, 0.8, and 4.34 percent, respectively and micronutrients concentration such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, and boron were 155.73, 194.83, 148.56, 44.92, and 51.5 mg kg^-1 leaf dry weight, respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that good production was related to higher nutrients uptake from the growing media and can be proposed as a media for commercial gerbera planting‎‎‎.