RESPONSE OF PLANE TREE (PLA TANUS ORIENTALIS) T O CUTTINGS AND PLANTING DATES - M. Sajid; M. Pervaiz A. Rab; I. Jan; I. Haq; F. Wahid; S. T. Shah; I. Ali (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2012)
Field experiment was carried out at Ornamental Nursery, Department of Horticulture, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Agricultural University Peshawar, during 2009 to study “the response of plane tree cuttings to different planting dates”. Three types of cuttings (hardwood cuttings, semi-hardwood cuttings, Softwood cuttings) and three dates (6th January, 21st January and 5th February) were studied. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement. Sprouting percentage (%), survival percentage (%), plant height (cm), number of leaves plant-1, stem thickness (cm), Stem weight (g), Number of roots plant-1, Root length (cm) and Root weight (g) were significantly affected by types of cuttings and different planting dates. Hardwood cuttings showed that maximum sprouting percentage (57.56%), survival percentage (44.78%), plant height (182.64cm), number of leaves plant-1 (26.47), stem thickness (1.26cm), stem weight (95.58g), number of roots plant-1 (12.55), root length (47.25cm) and root weight (28.12g), while in case of planting dates maximum sprouting percentage (48.56%), survival percentage (40.56%), number of leaves plant-1 (25.33), stem thickness (1.07cm), stem weight (88.00g), number of roots plant-1 (10.55) and root weight (19.89g) were observed in cuttings planted on 6th January. The results of interactions showed that maximum sprouting percentage (75.67%), survival percentage (65.67%), plant height (195.50cm) and maximum number of leaves plant-1 (29.77) were observed in hardwood cuttings planted on 6th January. Hardwood cuttings performed best in most of the parameters while Semi-hardwood and Softwood cuttings showed poor performance. It may be concluded that planting hardwood cuttings enhances sprouting percentage (%), percent survival and other physiological parameters. Among planting dates 6th January is recommended for hardwood cuttings propagation of plane tree.
Keywords: journal article; Chinar/Plane tree (Platanus orientalis); cutting types; planting dates and growth percentage