PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON GERMINATION AND GROWTH OF OCHNA SHRUB. B- EFFECT OF IRRIGATION INTERVALS ON GROWTH AND QUALITY OF Ochna serrulata (HOCHST.) SEEDLINGS GROWN IN DIFFERENT MEDIA.

A pot experiment was conducted under saran at the nursery of Al-Zohriya Garden, Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt during 2018 and 2019 seasons to study the effect of following growing media: the pure sand (S),S + clay at either (3:1,v/v) or (1:1,v/v) and S + farmyard manure (FYM) compost at either (3:1,v/v) or (1:1,v/v), irrigation intervals ( once every 1, 2 and 3 days) and their interactions on growth and quality of Mickey Mouse plant (Ochna serrulata Hochst.) transplants of 10-month-old during the rearing period in the nursery. It was found that amending the sand with either clay or FYM compost at any ratio in these studies significantly improved all vegetative and root growth parameters, with the superiority of the mixture, sand + FYM compost (3:1 v/v), which gave the highest means of plant height, No. leaves/plant, root length and fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots compared to all the other media in both seasons. On the other hand, shortening irrigation period from 3 to either 2 or 1 days significantly hastened growth with the prevalence of 2 days irrigation interval that attained means higher, to some extent, than daily irrigation in most growth characters in the two seasons. So, the best vegetative and root growth criteria of Ochna plant were obtained from planting in the mixture of sand + FYM compost (3:1, v/v) with irrigation every 2 days. A similar trend to that of vegetative and root growth results was also occurred concerning chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids and total soluble sugars concentrations in the leaves . From such gains, it can be proposed to culture the small transplants of Mickey Mouse bush (Ochna serrulata) under shade in sand + formyard manure compost mixture (3:1,v/v) and watering them once every two days to speed growth of this slow-growing shrub during the incubation period in the nursery .