ISHS Acta Horticulturae 108: International Cashew Symposium
PRELIMINARY STUDIES ON PROPAGATION OF CASHEW BY STOOLING AND LAYERING |
| Author: | S. NAGABHUSHANAM |
| Abstract:
Experiments have been carried out to propagate cashew vegetatively adopting, budding, grafting and air-layering with varied degrees of success. But, no detailed study seemed to have been made to propagate cashew by stooling and layering. Hence, trials were taken up on mound layering in cashew at C.P.C.R.I. Regional Station, Vittal, in 1978. Fifteen adult trees of cashew were subjected to stooling during the second fortnight of February 1978. The girth of each stool was measured to find out correlation, if any, between stool girth and the number of coppice produced. The coppice produced were covered with a mound of sand at the basal portion during the first week of May 1978. After etiolation for about 40 days, the basal portion of the stools were cintcured and treated with IBA for quick rooting and again covered with sand for rooting to take place. The shoots were observed for rooting during first week of August 1978, and the rooted ones were separated and planted in polybags for further studies. The process was repeated with another set of fifty shoots. The etiolated shoots were cinctured during last week of September 1978 and observed for rooting during the last week of October 1978 and the rooted layers were planted in containers. The studies revealed that the coppiced trees with girth (36 – 40 cm) produced more number of shoots showing a declining trend as the girth size decreased (16 – 20 cm). The percentage availability of cinctured shoots gradually declined with the increase in girth size and this was due to over-crowling of more number of slender shoots emerged from the coppied tree. Different girths of coppiced trees were classified under five groups viz. 16–20, 21–25, 26–30. 31 – 35 and 36 – 40 cm and the number of shoots produced in each group were noted. It was found that the trees of higher girth ranges produced more number of shoots that those with lesser girth of coppiced trees. Out of 157 shoots treated for rooting, 64.3 per cent had struck roots from the first batch and out of fifty shoots cinctured in the last week of September 1978, 44 per cent of them had struck roots. One hundred shoots were cinctured for the third time in the last week of November 1978 of which 55 per cent success in rooting was observed. There is a scope for quick multiplication of promising types in cashew in larger numbers economically, adopting stooling and layering as a technique. | |
