Cultivar effect on root development in pomegranate hardwood cuttings treated with auxin

Seven pomegranate cultivars with excellent fruit quality in eastern Afghanistan were used for hardwood cutting propagation. Cuttings wounded on two opposite sides were treated with 0.5 and 2% Indole-3-butyric acid or 1-Naphthalenacetic acid (NAA) mixed with talc. The auxin treatments induced the same rooting percentage as the control, but NAA 2%, which inhibited shoot growth of cuttings in most of the cultivars, significantly reduced the rooting percentage. Nearly all of the rooted cuttings showed basal rooting, while root development above the wounds, acrobasal rooting, was significantly affected by cultivar and auxin treatment. The cultivars with the highest rooting percentage also had the highest acrobasal rooting percentages. However, the cultivar with the lowest rooting percentage was not the cultivar with the lowest acrobasal rooting percentage. The auxin treatments promoted acrobasal rooting. The type and concentration of auxin that significantly increased the number and length of roots varied among the cultivars.