Adventitious rooting of auxin-treated Lavandula dentata cuttings

Abstract

Lavandula species may be propagated by seeds. However, plants will present expressive variation both in size and essential oil content. Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is a growth regulator which efficiently stimulates rooting and the objective of this research was to observe the influence of different IBA concentrations on rooting of L. dentata cuttings. Herbaceous cuttings with approximately 10cm in length and around 1/3 of leaf retention had their bases submerged into 0 (control), 500, 1.000, 2.000 or 3.000mg dm-3 of IBA diluted in de-ionized water for 30 seconds and placed in polystyrene foam trays filled with commercial substrate and kept under intermittent mist system. Averages of root number, length of the longest root, fresh and dry root weight, and percentage of rooted cuttings were evaluated after 60 days. There was no significant difference between treatments for the length of root, fresh and dry root weight. The percentage of rooted cuttings increased with IBA concentrations. A quadratic regression was obtained to root number. The 2.000mg dm-3 dose increased the percentage of rooted cuttings and the mean root number per cutting. L. dentata cuttings are easy to root.