Morphophysiological quality of yerba mate plantlets produced by mini-cuttings

The objective of this study was to evaluate the morphophysiological quality of yerba mate plantlets (Ilex paraguariensis A. St.-Hil.) produced by mini-cutting at four different times of year and cultivated in different containers. For the rooting of mini-cuttings, shoots of four yerba mate clones were collected four times during the year (April, July and October 2014 and January, 2015), cut into single-budded mini-cuttings and planted in equal proportions of pine bark-based commercial substrate, vermiculite and coarse sand. After 60 days of cultivation in a wet chamber, the rooted mini-cuttings were transferred to different containers: a 100 cm³ rigid polyethylene tube container and 500, 1500 and 3000 cm3 polyethylene bags containing pine bark-based commercial substrate and underground soil (2:1 v/v). A completely randomized design was used in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, with five replications ranging from 5 to 20 mini-cuttings per experimental unit. The plantlets were evaluated for survival percentage, shoot height, stem diameter, shoot height/stem diameter ratio and number of leaves at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days of cultivation. At 120 days of cultivation, 10 plantlets from each treatment were randomly picked to evaluate shoot and root dry mass, Dickson quality index, shoot height, surface area, total volume and number of root tips. The best combinations of shoot height, length, surface area, total volume and number of root tips and Dickson quality index were found in plantlets produced in July, 2014, followed by plantlets produced in October,2014 and January, 2015. The polyethylene bags allowed the production of yerba mate plantlets with satisfactory quality of shoot and roots, regardless of the volume. Yerba mate plantlets can be produced by mini-cutting from July to January in polyethylene bags.