Rooting of herbaceous minicuttings of passion fruit

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the basal cut, leaf presence and the treament with a root suspension in the rooting of herbaceous minicuttings of yellow passion fruit. The experiment was realized in a greenhouse using minicuttings with 8 cm of lenght and two nodes, collected from yellow passion fruit seedlings. The longitudinal basal cut in the minicuttings was done until the basal node. The leaves were removed or a half of a single leaf was maintained in the apical node. The minicuttings were treated with a root suspension in water in three concentrations (0, 100 e 200 g L-1). After 58 days, the rooting percentage, the number of roots and the root dry matter produced per minicutting were determined. The entirely randomized experimental design was used in a factorial esqueme (2 x 2 x 3) with three replications. The propagation of the yellow passion fruit by herbaceous minicuttings was viable and the presence of the half of a single leaf in the apical node give a higher production of number and dry matter of roots. The basal cut was only a little favourable to the production of roots and the treatment with a root suspension did not present a benefit to the plant propagation.