Application of Baking Yeast to Induce Rooting in Hardwood Cuttings of Olive (Olea Europaea L.) cv. Sorani

Abstract

This research was conducted in the open environment at the University of Sulaimani, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, to study the effect of different concentrations of baker’s yeast and soaking time on the rooting of hardwood cuttings of olive Olea europaea L. cv. Sorani. The hardwood cuttings of olive were soaked in (1, 2, 3 and 4 g.L-) yeast concentrations for two different soaking times (1 hr. or 2 hrs.). The cuttings soaked in 2 g.L- yeast gave the highest values of rooting percentage (43.33%), root number (3.02), root length (12.78 cm), shoot diameter (2.19 mm), sprout bud number (4.27) and IAA content (123.61 μg.mL-). Inversely, the soaking time had no significant effects on studied parameters except IAA content which gave the higher significant value (119.01 μg.mL-) in cuttings soaked in yeast concentrations for 1 hour. As for interaction of yeast concentrations with soaking times, the cuttings soaked in 2 g.L- yeast for 2 hours showed the maximum rooting percentage (46.66%) and root length (14.02 cm), while interaction of the same yeast concentration with 1 hour soaking gave the higher means of number of roots (4.05), number of sprout bud (4.33) and IAA content (145.37 μg.mL-). Moreover, shoot diameter gave the highest mean (2.46 mm) due to the interaction of 4 g.L- yeast with 1hour soaking.

Keywords: olive cuttings, rooting percentage, yeast concentration, soaking time