Rooting of white shrub and firebush shrub hardwood cuttings using growth regulators quick dip treatments

Vegetative propagation through stem cuttings is the most vital method to reproduce plants and conserve their innate desirable characters. Sixty uniform hardwood cuttings of each species with the same number of nodes of 1 cm diameter were used to test the influence of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) after quick dip for 5 seconds on induction, growth of adventitious roots and establishment of Bougainvillea peruviana cv. Shubra (BOPE) and Hamelia patens Jacquin (HAPA) species hardwood cuttings during vegetative propagation. Cuttings vitality expressed as bud break responded positively to growth regulators treatments. IBA at 2000 ppm resulted in higher bud break percentage (73.9% in BOPE and 59.2% in HAPA), higher rooting percentage (53.6% in BOPE and 28.4% in HAPA), greater number of roots per cutting (15.5 in BOPE and 24.8 in HAPA), higher root length per cutting (31.6 mm in BOPE and 27.2 mm in HAPA), higher roots fresh weight (9.5 g in BOPE and 8.8 g in HAPA) and higher roots dry weight (6.6 g in BOPE and 6.4 g in HAPA), and higher establishment percentage (60.3% in BOPE and 42.3% in HAPA), greater number of branches per cutting (3.6 in BOPE and 5.4 in HAPA), longer branches (139.2 mm in BOPE and 139.23 in HAPA mm), and greater number of leaves per cuttings (59.0 in BOPE and 50.1 in HAPA). The response of BOPE and HAPA species hard-wood cuttings to treatments was not consistent. To use a quick dip treatment method and achieve comparable results to soaking treatments for 12 and 24 h, a four-time increase in the treatment concentration is required.