Plant Growth Regulators and Rooting Media: A Viable Approach for Growth and Performance of Citrus

Abstract

Plant growth regulators accompanied with appropriate growth medium can boost up the growth and performance of plants to a greater extent. PGRs such as auxin, gibberellin and cytokine play an exaggerative role in growth and development of the citrus. Moreover, the study reflects a clear overview of the impact of PGRs and different growth media to encourage rooting percentage, number of leaves, survival percentage, sprouting time, and root length of citrus cuttings. Citrus is a versatile fruit crop having a huge number of varieties, cultivars, and species; comes in different colours and flavours. Although, there are different methods used in the multiplication of citrus plant which includes budding, grafting, cutting, air layering, etc. However, propagation by cutting technique is the most commercial and farmer’s friendly approach. Different elements such as concentration of PGRs, age of plants and environmental factors are responsible for the successful growth of the citrus cuttings. Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) are the two types of auxin, which are most commonly utilized in citrus propagation. Rooting medium plays a crucial role in the supply the minerals and availability of water in citrus. An absolute rooting medium must have more enough nutrients and water holding capacity with better drainage as well as sufficient air spores for excellent gaseous exchange that fruitfully influence the rooting ability and also have a profound effect on growth and development in citrus cutting. The best time for cutting of citrus stems is in between the July and August.