PAPER TITLE :IMPROVING MASS PROPAGATION OF ALSTONIA BOONEI DE WILD FROM STEM CUTTINGS: REQUIREMENT FOR CUTTING DI

APPLIED TROPICAL AGRICULTURE | VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 2016

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : Akinyele, A.O.* and Adzandeh, A.M.
  • Abstract:

While Alstonia boonei De Wild is one of the West African tree species being extensively exploited for use in traditional medicine, a regeneration scheme to avert an imminent genetic erosion of the species is limited. Urgent efforts are therefore required to facilitate its large-scale propagation towards production in home-gardens, plantation establishment, and/ or re-introduction into the natural forests. We tested the effects of selected artificial hormones (Indole Butyric Acid, Naphtalene Acetic Acid) and natural hormone, a mix of Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and coconut water at different concentrations on sprouting and rooting of A. boonei stem-cuttings, collected from the Botanical garden, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In total, 1,440 cuttings of 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm in length were treated with IBA and NAA at 0, 100, 200 and 300 mg L-1 concentrations and coconut water at 0, 50, 75 and 100% concentrations. We used both top soil and river sand as planting medium. Percentage sprouting, rooting and survival of cuttings were monitored every week for 60 days. Data were analyzed using both the Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with Duncan Multiple Range Test for separation of significant means.Hormone concentration and cutting length significantly affected leaf sprouting of A. boonei cuttings at α0.05. Highest leaf sprouting was observed in 20cm cuttings treated with 100% coconut water using topsoil as medium. No sprouting was observed in cutting lengths of 5 cm and 10 cm treated with rooting hormones, in either topsoil or river sand. Alstonia boonei sprouted using 100% coconut water at 20 cm cutting lengths. The results presented here may be complemented by further investigation, especially the survival and vigor analyses of the rooted propagules