Abstract
This experiment was carried out during the period from April, 20th 2004 to June, 25th 2005 in a plastic house at Al-Shallal nursery in Mosul, to investigate the effects of four planting dates (April, July, October and January) and four IBA concentrations (0, 500, 1000 and 2000) mg.L-1, using talc, on rooting of Carissa geandiflora shoot tip cuttings. A Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was applied including 16 treatments each was replicated three times and each experimental unit consists of 10 cuttings. Data were tested by Duncan multiple test at 5%. Results could be summerized as follows : Planting cuttings in 20th April and 20th July gave best results 95.8% and 97.5% rooting percentage respectively but then declined to 49.2% in October and without rooting in January after 10 weeks from planting date. All IBA treatments caused a significant increase in all rooting parameters, the most effective treatment was 2000 mg.L-1. Using 2000 mg.L-1 in April gave rooting percentage 100%, number of roots/cutting 16.6, average length of roots 12.2 cm, dry root weight 0.35 gm, average cutting length 17.4 cm and number of pear leaves 10.46 pear, with 1.5 shoots/cutting.
