Rooting of cuttings of different hog plum stock plants treated with indol butyric acid

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to assess the effects of different concentrations of IBA and the stock plant on the rooting of cuttings. Cuttings were obtained from apical shoots of six plants in the end of vegetative phase from plants in the begining of flush. Cuttings from each plant were separated and left in a shaded place during four days. Cuttings were 20 cm long and with diameter ranging from 7 to 10 mm. Two longitudinal cuts of 2 cm were made near the ends of each cutting. Fifty cuttings from each plant were split into groups of 10 before treatiment them with 0; 500; 1,000; 1,500 and 2,000 mg.L-1 of IBA. Cuttings were planted in polyethilene bags of 15 x 28 cm filled with Plantagro + earth worm mixture (3:1, v/v). Bags were kept suspended in a 50% shaded place. Evaluation was conducted 100 days later by measuring the number of sprouted cuttings, rooting cuttings, and those suitable for planting. No significant differences were detected among the treatments. Cuttings sprouted profusely, ranging from 65.0% to 73.3%, although with low percentage for rooting. Highest rooting means were 25.5% and 21.7% for cuttings treated with 1,000 mg.L-1 and 1,500 mg.L-1, respectively, and the lowest was 8.3% for control cuttings: Variation between means of leaves and leaflets/cutting ranged from 7.8 to 24.4 and from 62.8 to 230.6, respectively. The highest percentage of cutting ready for planting was 20.0% for those cuttings treated with 1,000 mg.L-1 of IBA. The lowest percentage was 5.0% for control cuttings percentages of dead cuttings ranged from 25.0% to 33.4% among treatments, while the percentage of dormant cuttings reached 1.6%. There is variabily in terms of cuttigns rooting capacity between the stock plant, wich may have an genetic origin.