Root system of West Indian cherry plants propagated by seeds and cuttings

Abstract

This research work had as objective to evaluate and to compare the amount and the distribution of the roots of 4.5 years old West Indian Cherry plants, in a clayey Typic Hapludox, propagated by: a) seeds (and subsequent grafting); b) cuttings. It was used the trench profile method, in the planting rows and in the inter-rows, covering half spacing. Images of 25 x 25 cm were taken in the trenches and evaluated with the SIARCS program. The density of fine (<0.5 cm of diameter) and thick roots (> 0.5 cm of diameter) were assessed. There was no difference between the two propagation systems for the density of fine roots in the planting row. The plants propagated by cuttings presented larger density of fine roots in the depth 0-0.25 m; and plants propagated by seeds showed more roots in the depths 0.25-0.50 and 0.50-0.75 m in the inter-row. The plants propagated by seeds presented larger density of thick roots than plants propagated by cuttings in the layers 0-0.25 and 0.25-0.50 m in the row and in the general density of roots (row + inter-row).