Abstract
Pond apple (Annona glabra L.) is a highly flood-tolerant tropical fruit tree species that shows promise as a flood-tolerant rootstock for commercial Annona species. The feasibility of propagating pond apple by air layering and cuttings was tested. Pond apple trees growing in containers inside a glasshouse were used to produce air-layers and obtain cuttings during February 1999. Air-layers and cuttings were treated with 0% (control) or 2% NAA to stimulate adventitious root initiation. Seventy three percent of non-NAA treated control and NAA-treated air-layers produced adequate roots and were transplanted to containers in July. Thus, NAA did not increase rooting of air-layers. No rooting was achieved in cuttings despite use of NAA. All cuttings showed callus development but no roots. These results show that pond apple can be propagated by air-layering without the need of root promoting bioregulators but not by cuttings.
