Partitioning sources of rooting potential in plum hardwood cuttings

SUMMARY

Rooting of leafless winter hardwood cuttings of the plum rootstock Prunus insititia ‘Pixy’ increased as the location from which the shoots were taken from within specially grown stockplants decreased in height above ground, associated with a parallel reduction in shoot thickness. However, the actual height of the least-ready-rooting crown cuttings had no effect on rooting, suggesting that relative rather than absolute position is important. Rooting was unaffected by bark-ringing and trunk incision distal to the shoot position, suggesting that such treatments did not interfere with a basipetally translocated root promotor which might have accounted for improved rooting of cuttings in the lower parts of the hedge. The rooting of crown cuttings above a bark ring was reduced considerably compared with that of cuttings from normal bushes, and this was associated with increased thickness of shoots distal to the ring. Delaying pruning in spring until after growth had started resulted in thinner crown shoots compared with those from plants pruned normally while dormant, and the rooting of these thinner crown shoots was much higher than that of the normal crown cuttings. It was shown by covariance analysis that shoot thickness accounted for part of the rooting response but could not account for the total effect due to shoot position within the bush, ringing, or time of pruning. Competence to root appears to develop independently in individual shoots, modified by a shoot thickness factor which favours the subordinate shoots induced in the shoot hierarchy of severely pruned hedges.