Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(3): 3007-3014 3007 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.703.348 Effect of Chemicals and Bio-Inoculants on Seedling Growth and Vigour of TNAU Papaya CO.8 (Carica papaya L.) Donaka Dayeswari 1* , Jone Auxcilia 1 , K. Malarkodi 2 and R.M. Vijayakumar 1 1 Department of Fruit Crops, 2 Department of Seed Science and technology, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is rapidly growing, perennial herbaceous plant. It is dicotyledonous, polygamous diploid species with a small genome of 372 Mbp/1C (Arumuganathan and Earle, 1991) having nine pairs of chromosomes (Bennett and Leitch, 2005) and was introduced to India in the 16 th century. It is one of the most important fruit crops belongs to the family Caricaceae grown in tropical to subtropical areas all over the world and is mainly propagated by seeds which show wide variability in germination and seedling growth. It has long been grown primarily for its delicious fruits which are the rich source of carbohydrate, minerals, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid. The fruits can be used in the preparation of products like jam, jelly, tuty-fruity, marmalade, nectar, wines, syrup, dehydrated flakes and baby foods. The digestive enzyme papain, obtained from latex is an industrial ingredient used in pharmaceuticals, brewery, meat, dairy, textile, photographic, optical, tanning, cosmetic, detergent, food and leather industries and so there is a growing demand for the papain. Papaya is a short duration fruit crop, owing to its high productivity and high returns, it is becoming very popular with many growers (Chattopadhyay, 2003). India is the largest producer of papaya covering an area of 1.15 lakh ha, producing 49.12 lakh tonnes/ ha Anon (2015). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 03 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present experiment was carried out to find out the role of chemicals and bio-inoculants on one month age old seedlings of TNAU Papaya CO.8 with seven different seed treatments viz., control (CB 1 ), DAP @ 0.25 % (CB 2 ), DAP @ 0.5 % (CB 3 ), KH 2 PO 4 @ 0.25 % (CB 4 ), KH 2 PO 4 @ 0.5 % (CB 5 ), PPFM @ 1.0 % (CB 6 ) and PPFM @ 2.0 % (CB 7 ). The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design with three replications in polythene bags. For each replication 25 polythene bags were raised for this study. The chemicals and bio-inoculants were drenched in the polythene bag at one month after sowing of seedlings. Seedlings drenched with KH 2 PO 4 @ 0.5 % (CB 5 ) followed by PPFM @ 2.0 % (CB 7 ) showed the highest seedling growth parameters, showed positive significant influence on shoot and root biomass. Keywords Chemicals, Bio- inoculants, KH2PO4, papaya, PPFM, Seedling growth and vigour Accepted: 24 February 2018 Available Online: 10 March 2018 Article Info