Study on Vegetative Propagation of Elionurus latiflorus (Nees Ex Steud.) Hack

Abstract

Aims: Elionurus latiflorus (Nees ex Steud.) Hack. commonly known as Brazilian lemongrass is a medicinal plant native to Brazil. Present experiment was conducted to study the effect of number of tillers/vegetative unit of transplants on biomass production in a period of 480 days. Study design: The experiment was conducted by using completely randomized design with three treatments i.e. plants transplanted with one tiller (T1), plants transplanted with 2 tillers (T2) and plants transplanted with 3 tillers (T3). These treatments were replicated eight times where transplantations were done in polybags which containing mixture of soil, dung and carbonized rice in 3:1:1 ratio. These polybags were kept for 160 days in greenhouse and pruning was done in every plant by maintaining 5 cm of the plant biomass for its regrowth. Duration of Study: This experiment was carried out over 16 months. Methodology: Every plant seedling was submitted to a cut maintaining approximately 5 cm of the plant biomass for its regrowth. After each pruning, survival percentage, increment in the number of tillers propagated, rise of plants height, fresh as well as dry mass weight were evaluated. Results: Lower initial number of main stems influenced survival only in the early growth phase after transplantation with a loose of 73% of the population transplanted with an unique main stem. Survival kept a constant value without plant mortalities in the successive 320 days evaluated after the first pruning. The number of tillers propagated weren’t affected significantly by the number of initial main stems in a single period. In the other hand, in the comprehensive period of the experiment there was a change with mean variation from 9.68 to 36.75. Height decreased the mean from 102.82 cm to 26.66 cm. Fresh and Dry Plant Mass increased from 5.19 g/plant to 11.47 g/plant and from 2.17 g/plant to 4.93 g/plant respectively, P˂0.05. Conclusion: This study even if elementary represents a required approach for the domestication of the species avoiding the waste of time and plant material for successive propagation works. It represents a suggestion for further research work in greenhouses with this specie for a validation of these results.