STUDIES ON THE PROPAGATION OF SOME ORNAMENTAL PLANTS\

Abstract

This study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 1997 and 1998 at the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University to improve the chance of success of cuttings by influencing some treatments such as rooting media, (peat moss/loam, I peat moss I sand and local sawdust I sand), IBA concentrations (0, 250, 500, 1000 ppm) and co-factor substances (control, cobalt (20 ppm) and Ascorbic acid (250 ppm.)) in some foliage plants such as: Schefflera (Brassaia) arboricola, and Ficus benjamina and flowering plants such as Euphorbia pulcherrema. When Schefflera arboricola and Euphorbia pulcherrema cuttings were planted in local sawdust I sand medium with fast dipping at 1000 ppm IBA and 20 ppm cobalt or 250 ppm Ascorbic acid, the percentage of rooting was inproved and the number, length of roots and fresh and dry weight of leaves and roots were increased. The same results were recorded with Ficus benjamina when the cuttings were planted in peat moss I sand medium with 1000 ppm IBA plus 20 ppm cobalt. On the contrary planted in peat moss /loam had no positive effect on the rooting, and vegetative growth in rooted cuttings.

The treatments which encouraged the rooting resulted in the decreased of the total phenols and the increased of the total indoles, carbohydrates and total sugars regarding all the plants under study.

Also, from the results obtained in this study, the rooted cuttings which were increased by planting in sawdust I sand with fast dipping

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IBA at 1000 ppm concentration, plus cobalt at 20 ppm concentration in Schefflera arboricola and Euphorbia pulcherrema increases quality . survival and vegetative growth.

The same was found in Ficus penjamina as a result of peat moss I sand medium with IBA plus cobalt ,as co-factor