J. Expt. Biosci. 6(2):49-52, July 2015 ISSN 223-9626 (Online). ISSN 2077-3358 (Print) 49 EFFECT OF RICE STRAW AND WATER HYACINTH MULCH ON TUBEROSE (Polianthes tuberose L) PRODUCTION M.R. Amin 1 , M.N. Sultana 1 , S. Sultana 1 , H. Mehraj 1 and A.F.M. Jamal Uddin 1 * *Corresponding author: jamal4@yahoo.com Abstract The study was conducted at the Horticultural Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from May 2010 to February, 2011. The experiment consisted of three levels of mulch (M0, control; M1, Rice straw mulch and M2, water hyacinth mulch). Results showed that mulch application (both M1 and M2) had significant effect on different morphological parameters showing significantly higher values of all the parameters than control. M2 always showed higher values of plant height (67.80 cm), number of leaf (11.40), % flowering plant (91.40), length of flower stalk (66.30 cm), lenth of rachis (34.20 cm), number of spikelets (14.00), per hectare number of spikelets (346), weight of individual bulb (28.20 g), number of bulblet (23.20), weight of bulblet (13.40 g), and yield of bulblet and bulb (22.40 t) compared to M1. However the values with M2 were significantly higher than M1 for the parameters of % flowering plants (91.40), number of spikelets spike -1 (14.00), weight of bublet (13.40 g plant -1 ) and yield of bulb (25.60 t ha -1 ). Keywords: Mulch, tuberose and flower. Introduction Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) is one of the most popular bulbous ornamental plants of tropical and sub-tropical areas in the family Amaryllidaceae, produces attractive, elegant and fragrant tubular white flowers. The flowers remain fresh for quite a long time and stand long distance transportation and fill a useful place in the flower market (Patel et. al. 2006). In Bangladesh, for the last few years, tuberose has become a popular cutflower for its attractive fragrance and beautiful display. Now, it is one of the most important commercial cutflowers. Tuberose has high demand in the market and its production is quite profitable. In Bangladesh, its commercial cultivation was introduced during 1980 by some pioneer and innovative farmers at Panishara union of Jhikorgacha thana under Jessore district. Although tuberose is now grown in the country, very little is known about production technology in Bangladesh condition. Tuberose is known to be thermo photo sensitive crop and grown in Bangladesh almost round the year. The role of mulching is well known on the growth and production of plants. Its vegetative growth, flower and bulb development are greatly influenced by growing environment. Due to long growing period it requires several irrigations. Mulching helps retaining moisture in the soil and sometimes even substitutes soil (Amal et al, 1990). It protects the plants from loss of soil moisture by wind and soil evaporation and reduces the irrigation requirements (Amal et al., 1990; Vanderwerken et al., 1988). Mulches help checking weed growth and improving the soil structure and fertility (Clarkson, 1997). Mulches also help proper utilization of all nutrients in the soil meeting up the requirements of irrigation and thus increase crop yield. Mulching is the common and cheapest method for the weed control. Weeds are major problem in crop production throughout the world. In order to maintain good yields of crops, weeds must be controlled. For these reasons mulching is more common in organic farming and its benefits include weed control, soil moisture conservation, and soil temperature moderation (Larsson et al., 1997). Considering the present situations an investigation was undertaken to determine the effect of different traditional mulches on growth, flowering and yield of tuberose. Materials and Methods The field experiment was conducted during the period from May 2010 to February, 2011 to find out the influences of mulch on growth and yield of tuberose. Bulbs of tuberose were collected from 1 Department of Horticulture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh