ROOTING SEMI-HARDWOOD STEM CUTTINGS OF Ficus deltoidea Jack PLANT

Abstract

A set of pot experiments was conducted under plastic house conditions at the nursery of Hort. Res. Inst., Giza, Egypt during 2007 and 2008 seasons to detect the response of 10-12 cm long semi-hardwood stem cuttings of Ficus deltoidea Jack taken at the last week of February to a basal quick-dip for only 10 seconds in the hydro-alcoholic solutions of 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) at the rates of 0, 2000, 4000 and 6000 ppm, and 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) at 0, 200, 400 and 600 ppm levels, with benzyladenine (BA) at the concentration of 100 ppm or without (0.0 ppm). The obtained results indicated that all treatments significantly increased rooting (%), No. roots/ cutting, root length (cm) and the percent of rooting efficiency index (REI %). Transplant height (cm), No. branches and leaves/transplant, as well as leaves, stem and roots fresh and dry weights (g) were also improved in response to dipping in solutions of the various growth regulators used in this study. Total carbohydrates content (mg/g dry weight) was greatly increased in the leaves of treated transplants, while total indoles and total phenols were significantly decreased with the notice that the rate of decrement in total phenols content was higher than that induced in total indoles content. In general, NAA treatments gave better results than 2,4-D ones, whereas participation of BA (100 ppm) with the aforementioned auxins resulted additional improvements in some parameters unlike some others. However, the prevalence in most of the previous measurements was for the combined treatment between 6000 ppm NAA and 100 ppm BA. Hence, it is recommended to get the best rooting with high quality of the new formed vegetative growth.