Cutting grafting of Leucospermum ‘Tango’ on L. ‘Spider’ – effect of wounding, rooting media, and reduction of foliar area of the scion

Some pincushions have been propagated by cutting-grafting, among them Leucospermum ‘Tango’ (L. lineare ‘Diadem’ × L. glabrum ‘Helderfontein’). To study the effect of wounding of the cuttings (two shallow and opposite incisions), rooting media (coconut fiber and a mixture of peat moss and polystyrene grains) and reduction of the foliar area of the scions on the rooting grafting process, an experiment was carried out in which scions of L. ‘Tango’ were wedge grafted onto terminal cuttings of L. ‘Spider’ (L. tottum × L. formosum), which were rooted with bottom heat (22±2°C) under a fog system.
At six weeks from planting, the combination of scions with reduced leaves + unwounded cuttings, rooted in peat moss-polystyrene grains gave the highest percentage of grafted plants (47%). At that time, the mixture of peat moss and polystyrene grains gave a higher quality rooting than the coconut fiber.
At the end of the trial, at 16 weeks, the treatments that showed the highest percentage of grafted plants was the combination of scions with unreduced leaves + unwounded cuttings, rooted in peat moss-polystyrene grains (81%) followed by the combination of scions with reduced leaves + unwounded cuttings, rooted in peat moss-polystyrene grains (61%). Wounding did not improve rooting.
Reduction of the foliar area of the scions did not improve the production of grafted plants.

XIV International Protea Research Symposium

I. Rodríguez-Hernández, M.C. Vera-Batista, A.M. de León-Hernández, M. González-Hernández, J.A. Rodríguez-Pérez

fynbos, propagation, proteas, Proteaceae

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1347.5