Air Layering Improves Rooting in Tree Peony Cultivars from the Jiangnan Group

Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.), a unique traditional flower in China, is famous for its ornamental value, medical use, and edible oil production. Traditional propagation methods, such as sowing, dividing, and grafting do not allow the large-scale production of selected peony varieties. Therefore, the objective of our study is to evaluate an air-layering technique on the rooting success of three tree peony cultivars (‘Baoqing Hong’, ‘Quehao’, and ‘Xishi’). The experiments were established through consideration of the influence of the time of the year the rooting was performed (mid-May, mid-June, or mid-July) and the growth regulators (1-naphthaleneacetic acid-NAA and indole-3-butyric acid-IBA) applied at different concentrations (1000 mg/L, 1500 mg/L, 2000 mg/L). The results showed that the rooting rate was the highest when the air-layering time occurred in mid-June, and the rooting rate of ‘Quehao’ was found to be the most significant, reaching 100%. The rooting percentages of 82.86% and 77.14% were obtained for ‘Baoqing Hong’ and ‘Xishi’, respectively. The growth regulators affected the rooting performance of the three cultivars differently. The rooting parameters of ‘Quehao’ were negatively correlated with the concentration of NAA but positively correlated with IBA, whereas the ‘Baoqing Hong’ and ‘Xishi’ cultivars showed no dose dependence for the supplied growth regulators. Root number, root tip number, and maximum root length in ‘Quehao’ were higher than those of the other two cultivars. The conclusion of our study is that the air-layering technique is a suitable method for achieving satisfactory propagation of selected tree peony cultivars.