Effect of age, position and type of cuttings on the performance of vegetative propagules in Bambusa vulgaris var. Striata

Abstract

Bambusa vulgaris var. striata is a cultivated bamboo species for its versatile uses. The vegetative propagation becomes the only viable alternative for this species because Bambusa vulgaris var. striata does not set seed after sparse flowering after a long period of time which makes seedling progenies unavailable. A low-cost propagation trial was conducted to explore the clonal propagation techniques for the species with the effect of age, position and cutting types on growth of plant propagules. The planting materials selected were with different ages (1 and 2 year old), different positions (basal, middle and top) and cutting types (single node, double node and branch cuttings). One year old bamboo culm performed better than two year old culm in the following characters eg. Propagules height, collar diameter, no. of nodes, no. of branches/node, no. of sprouts, no. of leaves, no. of roots, root length, leaf area. Propagules from basal portion exhibited significantly higher value than middle and apical portion in height, collar diameter, no. of nodes, no. of branches/node, no. of leaves. Similarly propagules from single node cuttings performed significantly better than double node cuttings and branch cuttings in the following characters, height, collar diameter, no. of nodes, no. of branches/node, no of sprouts, no. of leaves, no. of roots, root length and leaf area. The two year old basal portion single node cutting performed significantly better than all other treatments with respect to quality index.