Effects of Rooting Medium, Light Intensity and Misting on the Root Ability of Shorea Macrophylla Leafy Stem Cuttings

Abstract

The effects of different proportion of rooting media, hight intensity, and misting on the rooting of leafy stem cuttings of Shorea macrophylla were investigated m Sarawak Indigenous Tree Centre (SITC) The overall rooting percentage of S. macrophylla were 5164% Significant differences (p<0.05) were recorded between nonmist and mist, With non-mist system (55 03%) being better than mist system (48 25%) Cuttings inserted m 12 mixture of sawdust and sand by volume showed higher rooting percentage (57 11 %) than those m different proportion of coconut fibre and sand Rooting percentage is the highest in Ll (control, plastic sheet, 7163%) compared to L2 (1 layer of black netting + plastic sheet, 5813%) and L3 (3 layers of black netting + plastic sheet, 2517%) Higher mortality m L3 may be attributed to the lower photosynthetic rates, which was also associated With low hight intensity received by the treatment The present results suggested that non-mist system Which IS enclosed with a transparent plastic sheet and used rooting medium of different proportion of sawdust and sand IS a practical method to propagate vegetatively S. macrophylla