ABSTRACT
This study focused on the method known as air layering to facilitate the growth of new plants from Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth. a technique relatively unexplored for this species. The primary goal was to ascertain whether air layering could effectively produce new clonal (genetically identical) plants. Additionally, the study aimed to establish and enhance a small-scale nursery for clonal plants. To this end, trials were conducted on segments of branches from six adult trees in a special setup which stimulates root growth using various indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) concentrations. Root development was monitored biweekly. Based on these experiments, a clonal mini-garden was established to observe the growth and health of these new plants, assessing the number of new shoots and mini-cuttings generated and their survival rates. The findings indicate that root development occurred under all conditions, although the IBA concentration did not significantly affect the outcome. The success of plant growth within the clonal mini-garden appeared to be linked to the quality of root development during the air layering process. Therefore, employing air layering to cultivate new Mimosa caesalpiniifolia plants is viable and can support the creation of a clonal mini-garden for subsequent propagation.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco and the graduate program in Forest Sciences for all the assistance provided throughout the experiment.
We also extend our gratitude to English Consulting Brazil for their external linguistic review of the English manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13416979.2024.2384109