Herbaceous cutting propagation of peach rootstocks in late summer

Abstract

Due to the necessity of extending the season to root peach herbaceous cuttings and optimize plant nurseries facilities, the present research had as goal to study technical viability of late summer rooting on four peach rootstocks. Distal portion (last growth) was used of branches of ‘Tsukuba-1’, ‘Tsukuba-2’, ‘Tsukuba-3’ and ‘Okinawa’ peach rootstocks and tested with different indolbutyric acid (IBA) concentrations (0; 3,000; and 6,000 mg.L-¹) by fast immersion. Sixty days after the treatments, rooting and root quality were measured. We conclude that using herbaceous branches from the last growth on March provides satisfactory results for ‘Tsukuba-1’ and ‘Okinawa’ rootstocks. The three Tsukuba rootstocks showed differences in rooting percentage, percentage of suitable and unsuitable cuttings for planting, root length and mortality percentage. IBA at 6,000 m.L-¹ on March can be recommended for herbaceous cutting treatment of the studied peach rootstocks.

Keywords

• Prunus persica; Vegetative propagation; Cloning