Enhanced Rooting of Leaf Bud Cuttings of Schefflera arboricola Using Mycorrhizal Fungi

Aims: Schefflera arboricola is an evergreen shrub in the family Araliaceae. Beside Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations which can enhance rooting of horticulture plants. Although commercially produced inoculum of mycorrhizal fungi is readily available to horticulturist, cultivar specific responses to inoculation are unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi on the rooting of cuttings of Schefflera arboricola.
Study Design: The rooting test of cuttings involved a one-factor (inoculation) randomized block design with 3 replication plots with 27 cuttings.
Place and Duration of Study: This experiment was executed in the greenhouse of Research Institute in University of Zabol in Iran on May 2013. Duration of experiment was approximately 45 days.
Methodology: This experiment was carried out by application of 2 species of Glomus as mycorrhizal fungi and their blend to rooting media on Schefflera cuttings and comparison of them to non-inoculated cuttings. Parameters such as rooting, number of root, total length of root, root fresh and dry weight per each cutting were measured.
Results: The result showed Using mycorrhizal fungi in rooting substrate increased root initiation, number of rooted cuttings and number of roots per each cutting compared to control treatments. Although the effect of MF on root length wasn’t significant, the greatest total root length per cutting was observed in G. mosseae fungi with nearly 55 cm, whiles cutting in control treatments had 2.97 cm total root length. Also the effect of MF on root fresh and dry weight wasn’t significant, but in these characteristics mosseae treatments was better than the others. Observation of roots by microscope showed Symbiosis between plants and fungi. Thus application of mycorrhizal fungi can enhanced the rooting of Schefflera cuttings and greenhouse owner can use this way for acceleration to ornamental plants production.