THE INFLUENCE OF STOCKPLANT FERTILIZATION ON TISSUE

CONCENTRATION OF NITROGEN, CARBOHYDRATES AND AMINO ACIDS

AND ON THE ROOTING OF LEAFY STEM CUTTINGS OF Cola anomala K. Schum
(MALVACEAE)

Abstract

Agroforestry tree domestication for forest restoration and fruits and nuts production is
ongoing in West and Central Africa. It is focused among others on vegetative propagation
techniques to capture the superior phenotypes of individual trees. Cola anomala which is a
priority target for domestication has been reported amenable to vegetative propagation
through rooting of leafy stem cutting, but the rooting efficiency of cuttings collected from
non-fertilized stockplants was very poor. The present study addressed the effect of a range of
granular NPK 20-10-10 doses (0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 g/plant applied at 2 month intervals for 8
months) on growth, total nitrogen content, available carbohydrate content and amino acid
content of C. anomala stockplants and the subsequent rooting ability of leafy stem cuttings.
Results showed that perseverance fertilizer applications significantly affected growth
(p<0.001), nitrogen content (p<0.001), carbohydrate content (p=0.003) and amino acid
content (p = 0.001) of stockplant shoots, as well as mortality percentage (p<0.001), rooting
percentage (p = 0.04) and te number of roots (p = 0.02) of subsequently harvested cuttings.
The lowest mortality rate (0%) was associated with the highest rooting percentage (90±7.1%),
while the highest number of roots per rooted cutting (2.61±0.31) was obtained when NPK
fertilizer was applied at the rate of 1g/plant. This dose corresponded to the rate at which
stockplant growth was maximized. Of the parameters investigated, only the content of
available carbohydrate at the time of excision was significantly correlated with percentage of
cuttings rooted (r = 0.90, p = 0.03). It is concluded that NPK fertilizer applied to stockplants
at the rate of 1g/plant at 2-month intervals for 8 months resulted in the fastest growth and the
best rooting ability of subsequently rooted cuttings. This is valuable information to optimized
the clonal propagation protocol for C. anomala and other species of the humid tropics of West
and Central Africa, especially those considered to be difficult to propagate.