ABSTRACT
The propagation of peach rootstocks by cutting is advantageous, and studies on the cutting type that provides better rooting are necessary. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of branch developmental stage(herbaceous and semi-woody) and cutting type (basal and apical) on adventitious rooting of four Prunus spp. rootstock cultivars 'Okinawa', 'Tsukuba-1' (Prunus persica L. Bastsch), 'Julior' (P. insititia L. x P. domestica L.) and 'Mirabolano 29-C' (P. cerasifera Ehrh). For each treatment 15cm-long cuttings, with a pair of entire leaves at distal portion, were prepared. Cuttings were kept on vermiculite under intermittent mist system for 50 days. For both herbaceous or semi-hardwood cuttings, rooting percentages were higher than 80% for ‘Mirabolano 29-C’, ‘Tsukuba-1’ and ‘Okinawa’, but apical cuttings percentage being always highest for cv. 'Mirabolano 29-C', which also had the highest number and dry weight of roots. 'Mirabolano 29-C' had 96.65% of sprouting, with highest dry mass and number of new sprouts per cutting, followed by 'Tsukuba-1' with 66.7% sprouting. The cv. 'Julior' showed the lowest values for all analyzed variables. 'Mirabolano 29-C' rootstock stood out among the studied genotypes corroborating that genotype could be more important than branch or cutting type for the successful vegetative propagation of Prunus spp. rootstocks.
Key words:
Prunus cerasifera Ehrh; Prunus persica L. Bastsch; P. insititia L. x P. domestica L.; rooting; herbaceous cutting; semi-hardwood cutting.