Effects of Stock Age, Hormone Types and Concentrations on Rooting and Early Growth of Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn. Stem Cuttings

This study investigated the effects of stock age, hormones and hormone concentrations on survival and rooting of Vitellaria paradoxa stem cuttings with the aim of improving on early development of the species. Single node stem cuttings were obtained from 9 and 15 months old seedlings of V. paradoxa and treated with Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA), Indole Butyric Acid (IBA), unripe coconut water (CW) and distilled water (control) at 100 mg/l and 200 mg/l concentrations NAA, IBA and 50% and 100% coconut water. Quick dip method was used and the cuttings set in washed and sterilized river sand medium under non-mist propagation in a 2x4x2 factorial experiment laid out in Completely Randomized Design and replicated 3 times. Percentage rooted and percentage die-back were assessed after eight weeks of setting while shoot height (cm), shoot diameter (mm), leaf production and leaf area (cm2) were assessed for three months. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Cuttings from both 9 months and 15 month old stocks recorded higher percentage (90%) with NAA hormone treated cuttings and also produced the highest rooting at (90%) while control recorded the least (50%). Hormone type also significantly influenced the early growth of the rooted cuttings in term of shoot height, shoot diameter, leaf area and leaf production (p≤0.05). The highest shoot height, shoot diameter, leaf area and number of leaves were obtained with NAA with mean values of (4.81 cm, 3.46 mm, 35.08 cm2 and 5.00) respectively while control had the least (3.80 cm, 2.28 mm, 27.81 cm2 and 3.29) respectively. It therefore implies that the use of hormones can improve rooting and early growth of V. paradoxa stem cuttings collected from young stock plants.