VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION OF HYMENAEA COURBARIL L. AND APULEIA LEIOCARPA (VOGEL) J. F. MACBR. BY MINI-CUTTING

ABSTRACT The objective of this work was to evaluate the vegetative propagation of Hymenaea courbaril (jatobá) and Apuleia leiocarpa (garapa) using the mini-cutting technique with the use of indolebutyric acid (IBA) growth regulator in different types of mini-cuttings. Two experiments were set up: the first involving the two species and three mini-cutting techniques (basal, intermediate and apical) in the presence and absence of IBA (4000 mg kg-1). In the second experiment, only the garapa species was evaluated by testing the same three mini-cutting techniques at four IBA concentrations: 0, 1000, 2000 and 4000 mg kg-1. The mini-cuttings were obtained from 6-month-old seedlings produced from seeds in a nursery. A randomized block design was used in a 3 x 2 x 3 factorial scheme (three mini-cutting techniques, two IBA concentration levels and three evaluation dates) in the first experiment, and a 3 x 4 x 3 factorial scheme (three mini-cutting techniques, four IBA concentrations and three evaluation dates) in the second experiment. At 90 days, jatobá had an average survival of 54%, with less than 5% of total rooting, without significant influence of the mini-cutting technique or IBA use. Garapa presented higher survival for the basal mini-cuttings in both experiments, which were the only ones that took root. IBA did not influence survival or rooting percentage of garapa mini-cuttings, but negatively influenced the root number, length and dry mass. We concluded that the basal mini-cutting is a viable technique for vegetative propagation of garapa, presenting 40% of rooting, but the propagation by mini-cutting for jatobá was not successful under the conditions of this study.