Determining the Rooting Ability of Hardwood Cuttings of Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cv. ‘Bluecrop’ Stored in Refrigerating Conditions

S Braha ,Petrit Rama,Asdren Zajmi

doi:10.5296/jas.v8i3.16309

Abstract

This experiment has been carried out in order to determine the rooting ability of hardwood cuttings of the blueberry cultivar ‘Bluecrop’ collected during the deep dormant winter period in the last part of January. In order to induce the adventitious roots formation, the cuttings were stimulated using Indol Butyric Acid (IBA) and Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) in various concentrations (1500, 3000, 4500 ppm), whilst one row in each box remained intact (control). The collection of cuttings off the mother plant at the beginning of January enable the nutrients and other matter that help the process of rooting not to move from the base of cutting towards the top and consequently they remain at the base of cutting which results with quite a high rooting percentage (up to 72.5%) compared to the cuttings collected in February with rooting percentage of 67.5% and in March (52%). In both types of substrate, turf and turf-perlite 2:1 and in different time periods when cuttings have been collected, IBA proved to be better in inducing adventitious roots compared to NAA.

Highlights

The highbush blueberry is a fresh climate plant which is successfully cultivated at altitudes ranging from 300 to 800 m whilst in southern localities up to 1000 m altitude
Such treated cuttings were kept for 15 minutes, and afterwards were powdered in their base with captan powder mixed with talk, than they were placed in boxes for rooting at a distance 10 x 5 cm, in a depth of around 1⁄2 of the cutting length leaving at least two buds over the substrate where they were kept for eight weeks
The rooting percentage of hardwood cuttings in the substrate turf-perlite 2:1, collected at the beginning of January reached up to 72.5% in the variant Indol Butyric Acid (IBA) 3000 ppm compared to the cuttings placed in the substrate turf-only where the rooting percentage was 57.5% in the same variant IBA 3000 ppm

Summary

Introduction

The highbush blueberry is a fresh climate plant which is successfully cultivated at altitudes ranging from 300 to 800 m whilst in southern localities up to 1000 m altitude. The relation between ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4+) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3-) is very important and does have influence on the blueberry development This relation varies depending on the growth stage of the plant as well as the pH at the root area and the physical and chemical properties of the soil. For this reason blueberry cultivation requires well aerated soils. There are several successful methods of blueberry production in a vegetative way that could potentially be used to propagate blueberry V. corymbosum L This is achieved using well-lignified hardwood cuttings, semi-lignified cuttings and soft-wood cuttings. Application of auxin, especially indol butyric acid (IBA) is one of the most common and

Methods

Results

Conclusion