Optimization of seasonality and mother plant nutrition for vegetative propagation of Pinus pinaster Ait

Abstract

Due to the high economic importance of Pinus pinaster Ait., there is considerable interest in developing, improving and extending the use of its families for mass clonal propagation and in breeding programmes. In the current study, we evaluated shoot growth, rooting ability and mini-cuttings production of P. pinaster in response to nitrogen fertilization and seasons. We compared eight half-sib families of P. pinaster from Asturias and Galicia (Northern Iberian Peninsula), searching for useful parameters and growing conditions to be included in a mass propagation program for clonal family forestry. We fertilized P. pinaster seedling mother plants kept in a greenhouse with three levels of nitrogen: high (HN), medium (MN) and low (LN) to evaluate rooting ability of minicuttings. In addition, we evaluated the maximal potential production of rooted mini-cuttings considering nine cycles of propagation over 1 year, also using three levels of nitrogen. The HN treatment significantly influenced the rooting process, with length, area and volume of roots all being positively affected. Spring was the most favourable season for mini-cuttings in the HN treatment. This study provides valuable new information to optimize the clonal propagation protocol for P. pinaster and shows that the mini-cuttings technique has great potential in mass scale cloning, providing high quality sprout production and well-formed new plants.

Biofertilizers and Biocontrollers as an Alternative to the Use of Chemical Fertilizers and Fungicides in the Propagation of Yerba Mate by Mini-Cuttings

“…The production values obtained for fertilization and high radiation treatments are similar to those obtained in Colombo (Brazil), although in that case there were 6 collections dates (Wendling et al, 2010). Fertilization aff ects production of mini-cuttings, greater nitrogen availability is associated with greater production (Martínez-Alonso et al, 2012). Although composted pine bark is widely used as substrate in forest nurseries in Misiones province, due to its abundance and low price, it is characterized by high cation exchange capacity and mainly low nitrogen concentration, making fertilization necessary (Jerez, 2007).…”

“…Plant propagation using this technology was successfully developed for this species (Nauman et at., 2017;Stuepp et al, 2017;Sá et al, 2018;Pimentel et al, 2019) and others, mainly Pinus sp. (Rocha and Niella, 2004;Niella et al, 2010;Majada et al, 2011;Martínez-Alonso et al, 2012) and Eucalyptus sp. (Wendling et al, 2003;Assis and Mafi a, 2007); in which agrochemicals are applied.…”

Adaptive Potential of Maritime Pine (Pinus pinaster) Populations to the Emerging Pitch Canker Pathogen, Fusarium circinatum

“…A first clonal collection structured in population and clones within population (no family structure) was derived by using one seedling per mother tree cone from each of the mother trees. These seedlings were used for clonal propagation following the protocol previously described [41] , [42] . Five clonal replicates per individual seedling were used.…”

Zinc - rooting cofactor in rubber tree mini-cuttings

“…COSTA, 1995; REZENDE; ZUFFELLATO-RIBAS; KOEHLER, 2013). The rooting in rubber tree with the exogenous application of nutrients (MARTÍNEZ-ALONSO et al, 2012), or application of synthetic auxins (BLAKESLEY; WESTON; HALL, 1991) has attributed to the polar transport of reserves and auxins closer to the cut region of the cuttings (COSTA et al, 2013). The preconditioning of cuttings in solutions containing nutrients such as nitrogen (N), zinc (Zn), boron (B) and synthetic auxins can improve the percentage, speed, and quality of rooting of the cuttings.…”