Pruning of shoot branches: an efficient technique for stimulating the mangrove growth (Rhizophora mucronata)

Publication date: Available online 8 December 2018Source: Biocatalysis and Agricultural BiotechnologyAuthor(s): Kandasamy Kathiresan, Rajendran Narendran, Kaliyamoorthy Kalidasan, Palanisamy DineshAbstractIn this paper, we analyzed the growth performance of 3 year old Rhizophora mucronata in response to pruning of shoot branches in the lower trunk, on 70, 117, 180 and 292 days of the experiment corresponding to four seasons (Post monsoon, summer, Pre monsoon and monsoon). The growth increased with number of shoot branch pruned, and days of growth. The pruning exercise exhibited significant promontory effect on the leaf expansion, diameter of stilt root, and buttressing of stilt root each by three fold, number and length of stilt roots each by 67%, number of leaves by 54.4%, number of lenticels in stilt root by 41%, and plant height by 16.3% in the plant pruned with 6 shoot branch than that in unpruned con sWQ@1trol. The number of shoot branch pruned exhibited significant positive correlation with the growth attributes. The present work proved the pruning of shoot branch as a simple and efficient method of stimulating the growth of R. mucronata.
Source: Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology - Category: Biotechnology Source Type: research