The rooting response of silvery (Leucophyllum frutescens) cuttings to different growing conditions and planting dates

摘要

An investigation was carried out to ascertain the rooting response of various growing conditions and planting dates of Silvery cuttings at Ornamental Nursery Department of Horticulture The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan during 2011. The softwood cuttings of Silvery were planted on five different planting dates with an interval of 15 days viz. January 15th, January 31st, February 15th, March 2nd and March 17th, 2011, in two different growing conditions i.e. open field growing conditions and under plastic tunnels. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with split plots arrangement replicated four times. The growing conditions were assigned to main plots, while the planting dates to the sub plots. Findings revealed that under plastic tunnels the planted cuttings produced excellent results in number of root cuttings-1(43.51), root length (13.34 cm), root thickness (0.08 cm2) and root weight (0.20 g). While the cuttings planted in open field showed poor results in the mentioned parameters. Among the planting dates the March 17th plantation gave the best results in all parameters followed by March 2nd plantation. On the other hand, January 31st plantation produced the poorest results in all parameters. According to the current research number of roots plant-1and root length showed comparativelythe best results under plastic tunnels as compared to the open field growing condition. Cuttings planted on March 17thshowed the best performance as compared to the other planting dates.