Rooting of peach hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings

Abstract

The influence of some external factors important for the rooting of semi-hardwood and hardwood peach cuttings planted in a mist propagation unit with a bottom heat bench were investigated. Cuttings from 1-year-old trees had relatively higher rooting percentages after storage at 2–4ºC for 2 and 3 months, while cuttings from 11-year-old trees had the highest rooting percentage at the first planting. Cold storage appeared to decrease rooting of the cuttings from 11-year-old trees significantly. The greatest length of semi-hardwood cuttings was 15–20 cm long. Hardwood cuttings collected from the middle of the shoot on 4 November gave the best results. Spring Crest, Arm King and GF677 had the highest rooting percentages (averaged across all levels), while the cultivars Andross, Flavour Crest and Katerina rooted poorly. The effect of 5 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) concentrations on the rooting of peach hardwood cuttings were also tested. Generally, IBA concentration at rates of 2000 mg/L gave very good rooting.