Nodal influence on <i>Nauclea diderrichii</i> (De Willd and T. Durand) merill juvenile stem cutting

Abstract

The experiment investigated effect of number of nodes on shooting and rooting ability of Nauclea diderrichii juvenile cuttings. The cuttings were approximately cut into one node cuttings (T₁), two nodes’ cuttings (T₂), three nodes’ cuttings (T₃) and four nodes’ cuttings (T₄) experiment treatments. Five cuttings each of the treatment were set in planting trays and replicated four times making eighty (80) cuttings in total. It was arranged under a humid propagator chamber in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and assessed variables such as survival rate, the number of leaves, root and shoot, the longest shoot and root length.The result showed that nodal cuttings in treatment T₄, had the best performance (4.50) in the survival rate while the least mean survival rate is T₁ with 2.75. It was also observed from the experiment that T₄ (four nodes’ cuttings) had the highest performance in the number of root and shoot, the number of leaves, the longest shoot and root length while T₁ (one node cuttings) had the least performance in the number of root and shoot, the number of leaves, longest shoot and root length. This means that the more the nodes, the better the cutting performance. The ANOVA showed that the treatments are significantly differentat 0.05% probability level. It is therefore recommended that to have an optimum performance in survival rate, the number of root and shoot, the number of leaves, longest shoot and root length for its sustainablemass production N. diderrichii, four nodal cuttings should be used.