Standardization of Length of Cuttings and Auxin Levels on Root and Shoot Growth of Dragon Fruit (Hylocereus undatus L.)

Dragon fruit as the "Wondrous Fruit" of the twenty-first century is a cactus-like vine with great economic and nutritional potential as exotic fruit crops in domestic and foreign markets. One of the biggest issues with commercial fruit production is the development of high-quality planting materials. Considering that it is a cross-pollinated crop, true-to-type plants could not be obtained through seed propagation. Hence, standardization of vegetative propagation protocol is necessary for commercial production. Therefore the experiment was conducted at Department of Fruit Science, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Periyakulam, to assess different length of stem cuttings (viz., C1 -10cm, C2 – 15cm, C3 – 20cm and C4 - 25 cm) with various concentration of auxin level (viz., G1 – IBA 2000 ppm, G2 – IBA 4000 ppm, G3 - IBA 6000 ppm, G4 – NAA 50 ppm, G5 - NAA 100 ppm, G6 – NAA 150 ppm) for achieving growth and rooting of dragon fruit. According to the experimental findings, among the different treatments 25cm cuttings treated with IBA 6000ppm showed noticeably superior results in early root initiation (12.11 DAP) and sprout initiation (8.26 DAP), highest shoot length (75.52cm) and root length (17.64cm), Average number of roots per cutting (20.17), Average number of shoots per cutting (3.7), maximum survival percentage (93.42%) than other treatments.