Effects of cyclophysis, topophysis and length of cuttings on rooting and early field performance of acer pseudoplatanus L.

Stem cutting propagation is one of the vegetative propagation techniques, which is used by nurserymen to propagate some tree species. There are difficult-to root tree species, which need the optimization of many factors that effect rooting success. In this experiment, age of the stock plants, position and length of cuttings were studied. Different age/cyclophysis groups of A. pseudoplatanus (5, 15, 20 and 30 years old stock plants), three cuttings positions/topophysis (bottom, middle and top) and two cutting lengths (long 50-120 cm and short 15-30 cm) were used. The experiment was laid in a complete random design with four replications. The result showed that cuttings from different age of stock plants and from different cutting positions differ in rooting success. Cuttings that were harvested from five years old A. pseudoplatanus were capable of giving 57.7of rooting success whereas those collected from 30 years old mother trees resulted in 1.5rooting. Cuttings from 15 and 20 years old trees gave 19.8 and 18.9of rooting success, respectively. Rooting success of five years old plants was significantly higher (p=0.05) than all the others, while rooting success of 15 and 20 years old trees were not significantly different from each other. But, both of them were significantly different from those 30 years old mother trees. With respect to position of cuttings on the stock plants, about 71.5of bottom cuttings of five years old plants (A. pseudoplatanus) were capable of producing root, which is significantly different (p=0.05) from top cuttings with 45.5of success. Cuttings that were derived from middle part resulted in 56of rooting which was not significantly different from both bottom and top cuttings. In the case of 15 years old stock plants it was observed that bottom and middle cuttings resulted in 28 and 22of rooting success, respectively. Both positions were significantly different from top cuttings (9.5) rooting success. Middle cuttings of 20 years old mother trees showed better rooting success than those of bottom and top cuttings. Bottom cuttings of A. campestre showed the highest result, 55of rooting success while those of middle and top cuttings were 30 and 6, respectively. Long cuttings have better rooting success than short cuttings in both five and fifteen years old stock plants of A. pseudoplatanus. Well-rooted cuttings were planted in field in autumn and spring. The survival percentage and height growth that was conducted in June 2004 showed that autumn planted A. pseudoplatanus ere better in both aspects. However, none of the planted cuttings of A. campestre were survived.