Abstract:
Costus speciosus is a herb belongs to order Zingiberales, Family Costaceae, wit a pseudostem
and convolete leaf-sheaths. Conventional vegetative propagation of Costus speciosus is carried
out through stem cuttings, division of clumps and rhizomes. The study was carried out to
select suitable cutting type and potting mixture for propagation of Costus speciosus. Three
different cutting types (soft wood, semi hard wood and hard wood) and four different potting
mixtures (top soil, top soil:sand (1:1), sand:Compost (1:1) and top soil: sand: compost (1:1:1)
were used. The experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Design with
factorial structure and 10 replicates were used for each treatment. Two nodal cuttings were
planted in black polythene bags filled with different potting mixtures asinged in different
treatments. Data were collected weekly intervals up to four weeks. Number of suckers arising
from cuttings and their height, stem circumference and number of leaves per sucker were
measured. Cutting type was highly influenced for the success of the propagation. According
to the results of analysis of variance, interaction effect of cutting type and potting mixture
was significant only on stem thickness (P=0.004). Significantly higher number of suckers was
arisen in softwood cuttings (P =0.0011). Height of suckers (P<0.0001) and number of leaves
per sucker (P<0.001) also significantly higher in softwood cuttings than other cutting types.
But the effect of potting mixture was only significant on height of suckers and significantly
higher sucker height was observed in top soil medium (P=0.0084). Results revealed that the
best cutting type for propagation of Costus speciosus is soft wood cutting irrespective of
different potting mixtures which were not significantly influenced for the propagation.
