Abstract:
Dalbergia latifolia is a premium-quality timber and medicinal plant species internationally
known as "Indian Rosewood”. This valuable plant species is native to India and all the
natural strands are fast disappearing due to the higher exploitation. Conventional
propagation by grafts and rooted cuttings is time consuming. Seed propagation is not
successful due to low viability, not uniform maturity, and genetic variability. Therefore to
overcome these problems, alternative propagation technique is essential for mass scale
production of planting material of rosewood .This investigation was carried out with the
objective of development of in-vivo propagation technique for Delbergia latifolia using stem
cuttings. Semi hard wood cuttings were separated from the mother plant and all the cuttings
were dipped in coconut water for two hours just after getting cuttings from the mother
plants. Potting mixture was prepared by sieved coir dust:sand 1:1 ratio and moistened using
fungicide (Topsin) solution. Potting mixture was filled in to 300 gauge and 18cm wide 45cm
high transparent polythene bags. Cuttings were dipped in 3000ppm IBA,4000ppm IBA,
3000ppm NAA, 4000ppm NAA, 3000ppm IBA+NAA (1:1 ratio), 4000ppm IBA+NAA (1:1
ratio) rooting hormone solutions for 2minutes before planting. After dipping rooting
hormone solutions, Roocta (commercially available rooting hormone) was applied into all the
cuttings and carefully planted in single plant propagators. The lowest time taken to rooting
showed in the treatment which applied 4000ppm IBA solution (33 days) followed by the
treatment of 3000ppm NAA (35days) and the highest time taken for rooting was recorded
from the treatment of 4000ppm NAA solution (61.333days). The highest number of shoots
was recorded in the treatment of 3000ppm IBA (8.6667) followed by the treatment of
4000ppm IBA and the lowest number of shoots were observed in the cuttings treated with
4000ppm NAA (2.6667). The treatment with 4000ppm IBA+NAA showed the highest shoot
length (0.7450) and treatment with 3000ppm IBA showed the lowest shoot length.Findings of
the study implies that Rosewood can be best propagated by semi hardwood cuttings using
4000 ppm IBA treatment effectively by initiations the roots by lowest number of days with
vigorous highest number of shoots.
