S. Afsharipour - Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Islamic Republic of Iran.
A. Mirzaalian Dastjerdi - Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Islamic Republic of Iran.
A. Seyedi - Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jiroft, Jiroft, Islamic Republic of Iran.
M. Mazaheri–Tirani - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Jiroft, Jiroft, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Various culture media contain a variety of materials that affect plant growth and development. Finding the best media culture among the various materials is thus critical to plant productivity. This study was conducted based on a completely randomized design using eight treatments and three replications. The treatments included the ratios ۳۰:۱۰:۶۰ of perlite-vermicompost-coco peat, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat, coco peat-vermicompost-palm peat, perlite-vermicompost-palm peat, and the ratios ۳۰:۷۰ of peat moss-palm peat, coco peat-palm peat, perlite-palm peat, and vermicompost-palm peat. Cucumber seeds were planted in pots containing these culture media under greenhouse conditions. After the four-leaf stage, the morpho-physiological responses of the seedlings were evaluated. According to the findings, when compared to perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium, peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat increased shoot fresh weight by ۵.۵-fold, root fresh weight by ۴.۵-fold, root dry weight by ۵.۸-fold, shoot dry weight by ۷-fold, stem diameter by ۱.۷-fold, shoot length by ۲.۳-fold, root length by ۱.۳-fold, and leaf area by ۳.۸-fold. However, compared to seedlings grown in peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat medium, the amount of auxin and reactive oxygen species decreased while total soluble sugars and peroxidase increased in perlite-vermicompost-coco peat medium. Our findings indicate that the composition of peat moss-vermicompost-palm peat can be used as a beneficial medium to improve quality of cucumber seedling under greenhouse conditions.

Cucumber, Palm peat, Peat moss, Perlite-vermicompost-coco peat.