Determination of Suitable Nursery Growth Media for Cardamom (Eletteria cardamomum Maton.) Seedlings at Teppi, Southwestern Ethiopia

Cardamom is mainly growing for its dry capsule used as a flavoring agent for food, beverages, medicinal, and source of income for the smallholder farmers in southwestern Ethiopia. Despite its advantages, the production and productivity of the crop hindered by several factors, for instance, poor agronomic practices, poor crop breeding, and management, from nursery to the main field of production. Therefore, a nursey-based experiment was conducted to identify the appropriate growth media ratios for cardamom seed germination, seedling uniformity, and vigor at Tepi, Southwestern Ethiopia. Gene cardamom variety was evaluated in six different growth media types namely; Fine Sandy Soil (FS), Forest Soil (ForS), FS: ForS (1:1), FS: DCH (Decomposed Coffee Husk) (1:1), ForS: DCH(1:1), and FS:ForS: DCH(1:1:1) and laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The result revealed that better cardamom seedling growth performance and vigor were obtained from a 1:1 ratio of decomposed coffee husk + forest soil growth media. Therefore, from the result, we concluded that the mixture of decomposed coffee husk + forest soil (1:1) can be used for better cardamom seedling establishment at Tepi and similar agroecology of Ethiopia. Future, studies should focus on the seedling obtained from this soil media mixture performance in the field for yield and yield components.