Initial development of gliricidia and maniçoba plants prepared from cuttings of four different sizes

Abstract

The propagation of trees using cuttings is widely adopted because of the shorter time required for the development of mature plants and also because of the difficulty in obtaining seeds from some tree species. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the influence of the size of cuttings of gliricidia and maniçoba plants on growth, sprout nutrient accumulation, and survival after transplanting to the field. The experiment was conducted in a completely
randomized design with four lengths of cuttings (25, 50, 75 and 100 cm) and two species (gliricidia and maniçoba) with four replications and 30 cuttings per plot. Cuttings with 100 cm of length of both species produced shoots with higher mass, greater length, higher nutrient concentration, and higher survival rates after transplanting to the field.