Rooting Evaluation of Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinesis) and Effects of Anaerobiosis on Bud Break

Abstract

Two unrelated studies were conducted in completion of this degree. The first study evaluated different rates of growth hormone on softwood kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) cuttings to determine the proper rate for optimal root initiation. Potassium salt of indolebutyric acid (KIBA) in rates of 1000 ppm, 2500 ppm, 5000 ppm and 10,000 ppm were evaluated on two relatively new cultivars of a golden-fleshed kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ and ‘AU Golden Dragon’. Results indicated a higher rooting percentage in the ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ cuttings when using 5000 ppm and 10,000 ppm KIBA over the control (distilled water), 1000 ppm, and 2500 ppm KIBA. However, in the ‘AU Golden Dragon’ cuttings there was no significant difference among the treatments. The second study evaluated the effects of anaerobiosis on bud break of peach (Prunus persica Batsch ‘Contender’) cuttings, white flowering dogwood (Cornus florida L.) seedlings, and whole plant liriope (Liriope muscari ‘Variegata’). Anaerobiosis is a process in which plants are depleted of air by submersion under water. Results indicated that in the case of floral bud break, anaerobiosis could be substituted for some chilling hours because the two water submerged treatments had higher floral bud break at the 800 and 900 chilling hours than did the control. In the case of vegetative bud break, anaerobiosis did not substitute for any chilling and there was no vegetative bud break on cuttings that did not have at least 1000 hours of accumulated chilling. Once the cuttings had accumulated 1000 hours of chilling, anaerobiosis did accelerate bud break and the warm water treatment resulted in higher vegetative bud break for all levels of chilling. In the liriope study anaerobiosis seemed to have a negative effect and the control had higher dry weights than the treatments that were submerged in water. The liriope dry weights actually decreased for the longer that the plants were submerged in water. The results from the white dogwood study were similar to the peach study in that the warm water treatment caused an increase in bud break and bud break to occur more rapidly. The control and cold water treatment had similar results in that bud break was not accelerated and the cumulative bud break numbers were similar.