Cloning of Ceylon olive (Elaeocarpus serratus L.) using conventional methods

Ceylon olive (Elaeocarpus serratus L.; family Elaeocarpaceae) is an under-utilised edible fruit tree that is sparsely distributed in the southern peninsula of the Indian sub-continent. Fresh and ripened fruit are edible and are used to prepare value-added products such as squash, jams and pickles. Methods to produce clonal E. serratus plants using softwood cuttings, air-layers, and grafts were investigated. Softwood cuttings were collected during the wet summer season (June–August) and showed 96.7% rooting success following 2.5 mM indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) treatment for 3 h. Hardwood cuttings collected during the wet summer season and subjected to IBA treatment failed to root. The duration of the auxin treatment significantly influenced the rooting percentage of softwood cuttings. Seasonal variations in the rooting response of softwood cuttings was also noted. The wet summer (June–August) was the best season for rooting softwood cuttings. Air-layers of hardwood branches, prepared during the wet summer season by pre-treating with 7.5 mM IBA resulted in 87.1% rooting. The spliced grafting technique could be applied also to elite Ceylon olive clones, with 70% and 50% survival rates of softwood and hardwood grafts, respectively. Ceylon olive could therefore be cloned by adopting these methods. Propagation based on softwood cuttings would facilitate moderate-scale cloning of this valuable, elite germplasm.