Cutting Propagation Efficiency of Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) Depending on the Conditions of Media and Cutting

Abstract

Lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) have some potential agricultural benefits for soil covering and high nutritive antioxidant fruit production in highland of South Korea. As a preliminary research step to introduce and to rapidly propagate the lowbush blueberry in South Korea, we evaluated the cutting propagation efficiency under several cutting conditions. The pH of peatmoss media were adjusted to five target values of 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and control with air-slaked lime. Peat-moss were mixed with perlite at five levels of volume ratios in separate experimental design. The cuttings were also prepared with the three cutting regions from mother stock shoots and the number of nodes per cutting. The rooting of V. angustifolium cuttings initiated at 50 days after cutting in nursery bed, and at 70 days after cutting, shallow root ball were developed by 0.5 cm diameter. The rooting rate and root ball development were favorable in the pH 4.5 and nonadjusted control (pH 4.15) while the mixed ratio of perlite did not affect on rooting efficiency ranging from 30% to 50% mixed treatment. Terminal and intermediate region from newly developed shoot performed higher cutting efficiency compared to the basal region, and four to six nodes per each cutting showed favorable shoot growth and root ball development compared to the 2-node cutting. Thus the cutting of upper shoot region having four to six nodes in acidic peatmoss nursery containing 30% to 50% perlite might be suitable preliminary screened conditions. The cutting propagation efficiency of the five lowbush blueberry clones were also evaluated depending on the summer and early spring cutting.