Effect of physiological status on rooting of Masbedda (Gymnema sylvestre) cuttings

Abstract

Vegetative propagation by means of cuttings is an important method for starting new plants identicalto the parent plants. Many plants can be propagated with good results by cutting, though the successdepends upon the propagator's circumstances, the time of year, and the plant to be propagated. Thepresent study was carried out to investigate the effect of physiological stage on rooting of Gymnemasylvestre stem cuttings.Healthy, double nodded cuttings were made from the mature plant stock established at the Faculty ofAgriculture, University of Ruhuna. The cuttings taken from pre-flowering (Tl), flowering (T2) andpost-flowering (T3) stages were stuck into preformed holes in poly bags filled with moistened rootingmedium which consisted of sand, top soil and compost (1 :1: 1 by volume). They were placed in a shadehouse and watered once a day. The Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used with tenreplicates. Assessment was done 75 days after for rooting. The percentage survival was not significantly(p ~ 0.05) different between cuttings taken from the pre-flowering (92%) and post-flowering (87%)stages. No significant (p ~ 0.05) differences also in the percentage of callused and rooted cuttingswere recorded between T I and T3. However, number of roots and length of the longest root percutting were significantly (p ~ 0.05) higher in Tl than any other. Furthermore, T2 showed the lowestfigures for all the parameters assessed, indicating that the physiological status of the stock plant at thetime the cuttings are excised is of great importance for the rooting process.