INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SUBSTRATES ON PROPAGATION BY ROOT CUTTINGS OF THE MILKY-FLOWERED PEONY PAEONIA LACTIFLORA PALL
The article presents the results of a study of the peculiarities of peony propagation by root cuttings. At the first stage, the ability to propagate by root cuttings of three varieties was studied: 'Sweet Sixteen' (Sweet Sistine), 'Maestro' (Maestro), 'Sarah Bernhardt' (Sarah Bernhardt) - to identify varieties with higher rooting rates. According to the results, the variety 'Sarah Bernhardt' was chosen (rooting of cuttings is 60 %, against 32 and 12 %, respectively). At the second stage of the experiment, we studied the effect of the substrate and the diameter of the root cuttings on rooting, using the example of the variety 'Sarah Bernhardt' (Sarah Bernhardt). Root cuttings were treated with Phytosporin M. and the growth regulator Kornevin SP. Variants of the experiment: control-peat grunt without treatment with Phytosporin M., peat-soil, vermiculite, sphagnum, perlite. In all variants, except for the control, the substrates were treated with Phytosporin M. It was found that the most optimal option for rooting is peat grunt treated with Phytosporin M. In the control, the percentage of rooting is 83.4 %, the average length of the formed roots is from 1.8 to 2.9 cm, and the average number of formed roots on the stalk is 6.2 pcs. In the variant with treated peat soil, the rooting percentage is 94.5 %, the average length of the formed roots is from 1.3 to 3.8 cm, and the average number of formed roots on the cuttings is 14.4 pcs. The remaining substrates were unsuitable for rooting cuttings. The results of rooting cuttings were influenced by the diameter of the cuttings. Cuttings with a diameter of 2.0 cm had a lower percentage of rooting compared to cuttings with a diameter of 1.0 and 1.5 cm.