Effect of five soilless media and method of propagation on rooting and growth of three difficult-to-root ornamental plants.
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Date
January, 2010.
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Abstract
Studies were carried out at the Department of Horticulture, KNUST from 17th June,
2009 to 26th August, 2009 to determine the most appropriate soilless rooting and
growth medium and also to determine the best propagule type that would facilitate
root development of Ixora coccinea, Ficus benjamina cv. Starlight and Thuja
occidentalis using stem cuttings and air-layers. All data collected were square-root
transformed before analysis using Analysis of Variance (Statistix Statistical
Software) and means separated using the least significant difference (LSD) test at 5%
probability level. For the stem cutting experiment, a 6 x 2 factorial in randomised
complete block design replicated three times was used. The different media used
served as the first factor with 6 levels (100% topsoil, 100% palmix, 50% teak
sawdust+50% coconut coir, 50% palmix+50% coconut coir, 50% palmix+50% teak
sawdust and 50% palmix+25% teak sawdust+25% coconut coir) and the stem
cuttings as the second factor with 2 levels (straight stem and heel stem). The study
revealed that 50% teak sawdust+50% coconut coir was the best soilless medium, in
terms of physical and chemical properties, and produced the highest number of
leaves (2.59) in Ixora coccinea and the highest number of rooted cuttings (1.39) in
Thuja occidentalis, 50% palmix+25% teak sawdust+25% coconut coir medium had
more survived cuttings (1.13) and produced the longest roots (1.05cm) per cutting in
Ficus benjamina cv. Starlight while 50% palmix+50% coconut coir produced the
longest root length (2.38cm) in Thuja occidentalis. The heel stem cutting produced
the highest number of leaves (2.32) at eight weeks after setting in Ixora coccinea
while straight stem cuttings produced more leaves (2.49) for Ficus benjamina cv.
Starlight four weeks after start of experiment. In the air-layering experiment on the
three stock plants (using a complete randomised design with 6 different media replicated three times), the best soilless medium found to promote rooting in Thuja
occidentalis was 50% palmix+50% teak sawdust. The study concluded that 50% teak
sawdust+50% coconut coir and heel stem cuttings could be used for stem cutting
propagation. For air-layering, 50% palmix+50% teak sawdust could be used for root
regeneration in Ixora coccinea and Thuja occidentalis while 50% palmix+50%
coconut coir could be used for root regeneration in Ficus benjamina cv. Starlight.
Description
A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate and Research Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in Partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Science(MSc.FLORICULTURE) degree on