Effect of Different Substrates Containing Azolla Compost and Rice Bran on Vegetative and Physiological Traits of Three Pothos Cultivars

The study was conducted in a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with two factors and three replications. In this experiment, pothos cultivar at three levels of ‘Golden’, ‘Manjula’, and ‘Marble’ and the substrate at five levels of garden soil, garden soil + Azolla compost, garden soil + leaf mold + rice bran, garden soil + perlite, garden soil + leaf mold + rice bran + perlite + Azolla compost were evaluated. Traits including plant height, leaf number, leaf area, shoot fresh and dry weights, content of chlorophyll, carotenoid, anthocyanin, leaf nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P) were measured. It was found that the Golden pothos plants had the highest chlorophyll, carotenoid, and anthocyanin contents, but the highest leaf N and P contents were observed in the Manjula pothos. The results as to the simple effect of the substrate on the recorded traits revealed that the plants grown in ‘garden soil + leaf mold + rice bran + perlite + Azolla compost’ had the highest growth rate, plant height, leaf number and fresh and dry weights. Concerning the interaction effect of cultivar × substrate, the highest leaf number and shoot fresh weight were obtained from Manjula pothos × ‘garden soil + leaf mold + rice bran + perlite + Azolla compost’, the highest leaf area from marble pothos × ‘garden soil + leaf mold + rice bran’, the highest total chlorophyll from Golden pothos × ‘garden soil + Azolla compost’, and the highest chlorophyll b content from Marble pothos × ‘garden soil + perlite’.