EFFICIENT CLONAL PROPAGATION OF GUAVA CULTIVARS BY MINI SOFTWOOD CUTTINGS - Bilal Ahmed Awan; Muhammad Usman; Bilquees Fatima; Faiz-ur-Rehman; Omer Masood (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2024)
Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is commercially propagated by seeds in Punjab and vegetative propagation systems are lacking. Propagation by stem cuttings is handicapped by the non-availability of plant material in bulk for cuttings and season dependency. Hence, juvenile mini softwood (MSW) shoot cuttings (3"-4") of Gola (Round) cultivar having two to three nodes were treated with plant growth regulators (PGRs) including indole butyric acid ‘IBA’ or naphthalene acetic acid ‘NAA’ in combinations with benzyl aminopurine ‘BAP’ and planted in sand, silt and coco peat (40:40:20 v/v) under CRD layout for PGR optimization. Cuttings treated with BAP and IBA (2 mgL-1 + 3 mgL-1) started early sprouting in 8 days and induced a greater number of branches (5-6), number of leaves (11), number of roots (6-7) and long roots (14 cm). Whereas, sprout length was higher up to 14 cm in cuttings treated with BAP and IBA (3 mgL-1 + 1 mgL-1). In the second part of the study, application of the optimized PGR treatment of BAP and IBA (2 mgL-1 + 3 mgL-1) to MSW cuttings of different commercial strains of cultivars Gola (Round) and Surahi (Pyriform) showed a better number of roots (5, 4), root length (13 cm, 11 cm), bud sprouting (100% and 80%) and number of nodes (5 each) in Gola (Sadabahar ‘G1’) and Surahi (Sindhi Bao ‘S2’), respectively. The rooted cuttings were maintained under standard growth room conditions and higher humidity till proper plant growth and the established plantlets were transferred to green house. This study established an efficient clonal propagation system using MSW cuttings thus reducing the plant material required for mass multiplication of elite guava cultivars.
Keywords: journal article; Auxin; cytokinin; softwood cuttings; shoot; rooting