Influence of growth regulators and length of cuttings on the propagation potential of Piper pedicellatum C. DC. – A threatened wild leafy vegetable of North-East India
Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (Deemed to be University), Nirjuli -791109, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Corresponding e-mail: asamad969@gmail.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2022.v24i02.33
Key words: Growth regulator, Piper pedicellatum, propagation, Rahre, stem cutting, underutilized, wild leafy vegetable
Abstract: Piper pedicellatum C. DC. is a wild leafy vegetable belonging to the family Piperaceae and is categorized as threatened species. It is one of the widely used popular leafy vegetable in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Sikkim, locally known as Rahre, Raro or Rori. The species is rich in vitamin A, Vitamin C, minerals, dietary fibre, antioxidants, protein, and energy and is also used as an ethnomedicinal plant. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of growth regulators IBA and IAA and length of stem cuttings on propagation potential of P. pedicellatum C. DC in the Forestry Nursery of North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology during the years 2018 and 2019. The experiment revealed that the performance of stem cuttings viz., time taken for first sprouting, maximum sprout per cutting, length of sprouted shoot, number of leaves per cutting, and maximum fresh weight of shoot are found better in the treatment of T4 (L1 + IBA 1500 ppm), T7 (L1 + IAA 1500 ppm), T11 (L2 + IBA 1500 ppm) and T14 (L2 + IAA 1500 ppm), respectively. Similarly, the maximum number of roots per cutting, root length, fresh and dry weight of roots were also recorded in the treatment of T4 (L2 + IAA 1500 ppm) at par with T11 (L1 + IBA 1500 ppm) during both the year. The mean maximum survival rate of cuttings with a higher rooting percentage was observed in T11, which is at par with T7, T14, and T4. Although L2 cuttings performed better than L1 cuttings, the difference was not so prominent. Stem cuttings, irrespective of their length, treated with IBA 1500 ppm and IAA 1500 ppm showed significantly superior performance over the cuttings treated with lower concentrations of IBA and IAA. The outcome of the present study indicated that the P. pedicellatum is a promising wild leafy vegetable plant that can be exploited for conservation, domestication, and cultivation through the vegetative propagation technique, with standardization of its production technology for the adoption of commercial cultivation of the threatened species.
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