The Influence of Rooting Substrate and Growth Regulators Indol butyric Acid and Naphthalene Acetic Acid in the Number and Length of Adventitious Roots to Hardwood Cuttings in Blueberry cv. ‘Bluecrop’ (Vaccinium corymbosum L.)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of the turf-only substrate and turf–perlite in the ratio 2:1 and of growth regulators in the quality of adventive roots ( the number and length) of well lignified one-year old branches without fruit buds in the Bluecrop cultivar (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) taken at the end of the latent period before budding at the February 15 th during the -2015 growing season. In order to support the increase of the number of roots and their length the hardwood cuttings are treated with different IBA and NAA concentrations (1500, 3000, 4500 ppm), while a part of cuttings were untreated control. The number and the length of roots have increased in relation to the increase of concentration from 1500 to 3000 ppm followed by a decline of these values in concentrations over 3000 ppm. Respectively, the number of roots (8) and the higher values of root length (4.6 cm) are achieved in the turf–perlite substrate, IBA 3000 ppm (compared to the turf-only substrate). The presence of perlite helps the aeration of the substrate and supports biochemical and physiological processes which lead to the inducing of adventive roots. Regarding the number and length of roots an important variation for (p<0.05) was observed between different concentrations of IBA and NAA. In general the effect of IBA was a lot better than the effect of NAA.