Obtention of <i>Vasconcellea x helbornii</i> (Badillo) Badillo mother plants from cuttings under semi-controlled conditions

Abstract

The babaco [Vasconcellea x helbornii (Badillo) Badillo] also known as mountain papaya is a native fruit from the highlands of Ecuador and Colombia. The present work was carried out with the objective of establishing a bank of donor plants of the babaco hybrid from cuttings, under semicontrolled conditions. Two-year-old plants grown in greenhouse was used as initial plant material. Subsequently, the stem was divided into different sections of 25 cm in length. These were planted in plastic sheaths with substrate and subjected to a phytosanitary control with 0.5% (v / v) Carbendazim fungicide. At six weeks of culture, the number of rooted cuttings, the number and length of shoots and number of leaves per cutting were quantified. The effect of biostimulant application (GERMO-TB01) was also determined to increase the number of axillary shoots. The results of this work allowed to reach a 100% budding and root formation in the different sections of stem. The best results in the formation of new shoots were reached in explants S1, S2 and S3. However, when applying the biostimulant the formation of new shoots increased to 5.82 per stem sections with better quality. Since the results of this work will be available donor plant material to develop in vitro propagation protocols of this hybrid, with high genetic and phytosanitary quality. Key word: bio-stimulant, donor plant material, greenhouse, rooting