Influence of IBA and Rooting Media on Rooting of Stem Cuttings of Dragon Fruit [Hylocerous undatus (Haworth) Britton & Rose]

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Fruit Research Station, Madhadibagh, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agriculture University, Junagadh during the year 2018-19 to study the effect of different concentration of IBA (500, 1000, 1500 ppm), different type of rooting media (i.e. soil, sand, soil + sand, soil + cocopeat, sand + cocopeat, soil + sand + cocopeat) and the interaction of these in different combination on rooting characteristics of dragon fruit. The result revealed that Indole butyric acid (IBA) had significant effect on rooting and shooting performance. The  exogenous application of IBA 1500 ppm with media combination of soil + sand + cocopeat (I3M6) significantly increased days taken for root initiation (13.67 days), number of roots per cutting (65.67), fresh weight of roots (3.07 g), dry weight of roots (1.70 g), length of longest roots (31.17 cm), days taken for initiation of sprouts (17.17 days), sprout length (16.27, 25.10 and 34.43 cm), number of sprouts per cuttings (2.70, 3.20 and 3.97) at 30, 60 and 90 DAP, respectively, rooting percentage (89.20%) and survival percentage  (87.00%)  over the other treatments.