PATIL, S. N.HIPPARAGI, KULAPATIPATIL, D. R.GANDOLKAR, KANTHESHR., SUMA,NAIK, RAVINDRANATH2016-12-302016-12-302015-06UHS13PGM373http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/93709An experiment was carried out at Division of Fruit Science, Sector No. 70, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, during kharif season of 2014-15. The study was conducted to know the effect of rooting media and their combinations on growth and development of air layers of guava, survival of layers and to find out cost effective rooting media. Fifteen different rooting media were evaluated for their influence on rooting, growth and survival of guava air layers cv. Sardar. Among the treatments, the sphagnum moss and cocopeat were found to be better rooting media for days taken for early root initiation (33.33 and 35.00 days respectively) and days taken for transferring (85.00 days) of layers to polybags which was followed by combination of cocopeat and sphagnum moss (1:1) whereas, the maximum number of rooted layers (37.00) was found in sphagnum moss followed by cocopeat (35.00 out of 48 layers). The root parameters like number of roots (8.17), number of secondary roots (6.67), length of primary roots (4.77 cm), the longest length of primary root (6.00 cm), diameter of primary roots (1.17 mm), plant height at 30 and 60 days (30.70 cm and 31.23 cm respectively) after transferring of layers to polybags, leaf area (5.07 cm2), fresh (0.52 g) and dry (0.36 g) root weight were found maximum in cocopeat as a rooting media. Biochemical parameters like carbohydrate (4.91%) and C:N ratio (7.05) were higher in cocopeat whereas, the lower level of nitrogen (0.70%) was observed in cocopeat and sphagnum moss. The growth parameters like number of leaves (12.33), number of shoots (3.66) and survival percentage (72.22%) were found maximum in sphagnum moss. Among the different treatments, the cocopeat recorded the maximum cost benefit ratio of 1:3.08 which was followed by sphagnum moss (1:1.97) and cocopeat + sphagnum moss combination (1:1).enFRUIT SCIENCE, GUAVA, Psidium guajava L., biological phenomena, biological development, proteins, livestock, organic compounds, developmental stages, genes, fruits, solutes, concentratesThesis