Sarhad J. Agric. Vol. 23, No. 2, 2007 EFFECT OF INDOLE BUTYRIC ACID CONCENTRATIONS ON THE ROOTING OF KIWI CUTTINGS Riaz Alam, Khalil Ur Rahman, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Ibrahim, Muhammad Abdul Rauf ABSTRACT Effect of different IBA concentration on the rooting of Kiwi cuttings (Cv: Hayward and Abbott) was investigated at Agricultural Research Station, Mingora, Swat during 2003. The callused cuttings of both sexes were treated with 0, 3000,4000,5000 and 6000ppm of IBA. The results revealed that cuttings of both cultivars treated with 4000ppm, showed good results on percent plant survival, number of roots per plant, root length, root weight, root diameter, number of leaves and shoot diameter. INTRODUCTION Kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) also known as chinese goose berry, monkey peach or sheep peach is a rich source of Vitamin C having higher contents than citrus and is dieocious in nature. It is a large, vigorous, woody deciduous vine and can reach over 10 meters in length. It starts bearing in 3 rd year while commercial bearing starts up to 5 th year (Miller, 1975). The fully ripe flesh is green, slightly acidic, melting and delicate in flavor, and contains numerous small brown seeds. The skin colour of the fruit does not change during maturation, therefore, optimum harvest maturity is difficult to determine. They will remain on the vine for considerable length of time after full maturity but the best quality fruits are those, which are fully grown and just yield to pressure but are not too soft. Optimum harvest maturity is reached when the soluble solid content of the flesh has reached 8% (Pratt and Reid, 1974). Fruits are hand harvested. They break readily at the abscission layer, which is the natural breaking point of the fruit stalk (Fletcher, 1971). The fruits can be stored for 5-7 months at 0- 6 o C with high humidity (Ravenhill, 1969). In Pakistan harvesting is usually done in the month of November, however, too early harvesting is not required though the fruit look mature, because it takes some time for the internal flesh to sweeten and soften. Kiwi fruit can be propagated from seed or hard wood cutting but seedling are not recommended because of its dioecious nature as the sex is unknown until flowers are produced. Rana et al. (1999) treated Kiwi cuttings with 500ppm IBA in spring season and found 57% rooting response. Abdel-Hussain and Salman (1988) concluded that wounding plus IBA treatment at 4000ppm gave the highest rooting percentage and greatest number of roots, root length and individual root weight of cuttings. Daud et al. (1989) reported that dipping the cutting in 2000,3000 and 4000 ppm IBA increased the number of roots. The effect increased with increasing IBA concentration. Kiwi cuttings are hard to root, therefore, the present study was initiated to study the effect of different concentrations of IBA on the performance of kiwi fruit cuttings. MATERIALS AND METHODS The research study was conducted at Agricultural Research Station (N), Mingora, Swat during 2003. The experiment was laid out according to Completely Randomized Design with three replications. There were ten cuttings of each sex {Male (Hayward) and Female (Abbott)} in each treatment. Treatments were control, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 ppm IBA. Twenty cm long hardwood cuttings of both sexes were kept in hot bin for 35 days at 20 o C for callus formation and then dipped in different concentrations of IBA for five seconds before planting in polythene bags on 10 th March 2003. The medium utilized was forest soil (decomposed pine leaves). The study lasted for six months, cuttings were regularly observed and the data were recorded on percent sprouting by converting the average sprouting into percent. The survival percent was calculated by following formula. Survival %= Cutting survived x100 Cuttings sprouted Root number was counted on each plant and their length was measured with measuring tape and then weighed. Leaves were counted on each plant and increase in stem diameter was taken by vernier caliper at sprouting time. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Percent Sprouting No significant difference was observed in sprouting among various IBA concentrations (Table I and II). All cuttings of male and female plants were sprouted. The non significant difference in sprouting may be due to sufficient stored food materials in cuttings. Percent Survival Cuttings of male plants treated with 4000 ppm IBA gave highest survival percent (33.3). In female cuttings the difference in survival was non significant. No success was recorded in control for both sexes. The highest survival by treating cutting with 4000 ppm IBA may due to more number of roots. While no success in control is due to failure of rooting. Kiwi is hardy to rooting and treating with Agricultural Research Station, Mingora, Swat – Pakistan.