Abstract:
This study was conducted at the Pomology Project, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Benguet State University, La Trinidad, Benguet from December 2015 to March 2016 to determine the effect of different ANAA (Alpha Naphthalene Acetic Acid) concentrations on the rooting of blueberry stem cuttings; to determine the best stem cuttings of blueberry and the best concentrations of ANAA that will enhance uniform rooting and seedling growth of blueberry stem cuttings; and to determine the profitability of using ANAA in producing cuttings of blueberry from stem cuttings.
Result shows that there were highly significant differences observed on the number of days from sticking to visible root formation, average number of roots produced per cutting, percentage survival, percentage of rooted cuttings, average shoot length and seedling vigor of blueberry cuttings as affected by the kinds of stems cuttings used. However, it was observed that there were no significant differences on the average root length and number of days the rooted stem cuttings are ready for transplanting in blueberry stem cuttings.
The result shows that untreated blueberry stem cuttings were the earliest to initiate roots, had the highest number of roots produced per cutting, and had the highest percentage of survived cuttings. On the other hand, blueberry stem cuttings soaked in IBA at 500 ppm (control) attained the highest percentage of rooted cuttings, produced the longest average roots, took early days to attain transplanting stage, and had the most vigorous seedlings while blueberry stem cuttings treated with 250 ppm ANAA attained the longest shoot compared with the other treatments.
The interaction between the combination of stem cuttings and ANAA concentrations were not significant in all the parameters except for the number of days from sticking to visible root formation and the average shoot length of cuttings. It was observed that there were highly significant differences observed on the number of days from sticking to visible root formation of blueberry cuttings as affected by the combined kinds of stem cuttings and ANAA concentrations. The results revealed that shoot tip cuttings of blueberry treated with 500 ppm ANAA were the earliest to form roots while semi-hardwood cuttings of blueberry treated with the same concentration were the last to form roots. Also, shoot tip cuttings of blueberry treated with 750 ppm ANAA had longer shoots as compared with the semi-hardwood cuttings.
