Abstract

Deciduous fruits are considered one of the most important sources of food ingredients necessary to build the human body through the production of a wide variety of delicious fruits and are acceptable to the consumer. Cultivation of these fruits are spread in different climatic zones, but they thrive in the regions have cool weather in winter and moderate to warm in summer. The research aims at studying stem cutting type (terminal, middle, basal) and cuttings incubation conditions (covered, exposed) on rooting and growth of deciduous cuttings (fig, pomegranate, mulberry) treated with constant concentration of indole butyric acid (IBA) @4000p.p.m. Stem cuttings of 15-20cm in length, 3-5mm in diameter were collected from trees 12 years old, planted in propagation beds containing a mixture of soil and sand media (1:2). The research was conducted in factorial experiments design in completely random blocks (FRCBD) in two factors; the first was the incubation conditions which is in two levels, and the cutting type which is in three levels for the three kinds of fruits, each one was separated. Results indicated that Fig cutting gave the best values in rooting percentage, cutting height, number of shoots and number of leaves under covered conditions over the exposed conditions. In the same tend, the cutting recorded a higher value under the covered conditions for blueberry and pomegranate in all the studied parameters irrespective of cutting type. Pomegranate basal cutting was superior in the number of roots and leaves, whereas the middle cutting recorded higher values for cutting height and shoot numbers. The research demonstrated good response for propagation these fruit trees by stem cuttings in availability facilities to be done by normal farmers.