Effect of leaf treatment with cobalt chloride on adventitious rooting of cottonwood (populus deltoides bartr. Ex marsh) cuttings

Abstract

The influence of CoCl2 on cutting rooting of five eastern cottonwood genotypes was examined. Rooted cuttings were treated with 100 mu M CoCl2 four weeks after the planting and morphological rooting characteristics were measured eight weeks after the experiment establishment. According to LSD-test treatment with cobalt chloride had positive effect on almost all examined characters, but only in number of roots on the basal 5 cm of cutting, number of roots from the 5th to 10th cm of cutting, number of roots on basal 10 cm of cutting, and total number of roots that effect was statistically significant. The obtained results indicate that for some difficult-to-root genotypes the treatment with cobalt could have a positive effect on rooting.