© 2005 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Mineral nutrition and adventitious rooting in microcuttings of Eucalyptus globulus
Joséli Schwambach (1, 2), Cristina Fadanelli (2) and Arthur G. Fett-Neto (1, 2, 3)
1. Centro de Biotecnologia – UFRGS (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular), C.P. 15005, CEP 91501-970, Porto
Alegre, RS, Brazil / 2. Departamento de Botânica, Laboratório de Fisiologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Avenida Bento
Gonçalves, 9500, Prédio 43423-Bloco 4,CEP 91509-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil / 3. Corresponding author (fettneto@cbiot.ufrgs.br) / Received June 30, 2004; accepted October 30, 2004; published online February 1, 2005
Summary
We characterized the adventitious rooting response of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. to various concentrations of calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, manganese, zinc, boron and copper. The parameters
analyzed were percent rooting, root number, root length and mean rooting time. Root number and root length were significantly
affected by mineral nutrition, whereas mean rooting time and rooting percentage seemed to be closely related to auxin availability.
Root number was affected by calcium, nitrogen source and zinc, whereas root length was influenced by concentrations of phosphorus,
iron and manganese, and by nitrogen source. Based on these results, we evaluated various combinations of several concentrations
of these minerals in each rooting phase. Cuttings that were rooted in an optimized mineral nutrient medium and acclimatized
to ex-vitro conditions for two months showed significantly higher survival after transplanting and drought stress than cuttings
rooted in basal medium and treated in the same way.
Keywords:
rhizogenesis, root length, root number, vegetative propagation.
