A temporal analysis of the rooting curve of two hybrid clones of eucalypt (C1 - E. grandis x E. urophylla; C2 - E. grandis x E. saligna) was carried out to determine the optimum time for permanence of the vegetative propagules in the rooting house, considered under the technical viewpoint and risk of disease incidence. It was found out that the optimum time needed to induce rhyzogenesis depended on the Eucalyptus clone and that a knowledge of temporal model may provide a basis for the management of forest nurseries. Besides, two useful criteria were established to determine the optimum time to induce rooting, i.e., the intercept of the daily current increase curve (DCI) and daily average increase (DAI) and the time during which the maximum rooting velocity value occurs. For clones 1 and 2, respectively, 20 and 30 days were defined as optimum times, based on the criterium of the intercept of the DCI and DAI curves, while15 and 22 days were defined as optimum times, based on the maximum rooting velocity criterium, with the latter criterium being the most indicated, taking into account installation cost and risk of incidence of diseases in eucalyptus clonal propagation.
Cloning; eucalypt; rooting; diseases
