Rooting of Maple Cuttings as Influenced by IBA Treatment

Abstract

Softwood cuttings of Acer saccharum `Commemoration', a Caddo maple selection (90-7185), and Acer truncatum were collected on 12 July 1996 from specimen trees at the Wichita Hort. Res. Center. Ten uniform cuttings of 14to 19cm-long containing four to five leaves were dipped for 10 sec in 0, 5000, 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 ppm IBA solution and Hormodin™ #2. Cuttings were rooted in a mix of 30% Canadian sphagnum peat and 70% perlite (v/v) and placed in a greenhouse located at Kansas State Univ. The greenhouse was equipped with a fog generator (Humidifan, turbo XE 1000) that was operated for 12 hr/day from 12 July to 5 Oct. 1996. After 12 weeks, cuttings were evaluated for rooting quality and percent using a visual rating scale of 1–5. `Commemoration' rooted with all IBA treatments. The control treatment resulted in a 100% rooting, whereas the rooting with 5000 or 10,000 ppm IBA and or Hormodin™ #2 was 90%. Caddo maple (90-7185) rooted at 89% with control treatment, followed by 78% and 67% with 10,000 ppm IBA and Hormodin™ #2, respectively. As reported previously, none of the cuttings of this maple, collected on 24 May 1995, had rooted, regardless of hormone treatment. The best rooting for Acer xtruncatum was 90% with 5000 ppm IBA and 80% with control and Hormodin™ #2, respectively.