The Effect of Indole Butyric Acid IBA Concentrations on ‎Rooting and Growth of Stem Cuttings of Thymus spp. Which ‎Spread Naturally in Latakia Governorate

Malak Sabbouh*(1) Talal Amin(2) and Hafez Mahfoud(3)

(1). Forestry and Environment Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.

(2). Biotechnology Department, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research GCSAR, Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Eng. Malak Sabbouh. E-Mail: malak.sabboh@gmail.com).

Received: 08/01/2019                               Accepted: 01/04/2019

Abstract

The study was conducted during 2018 to determine the effect of Indole Butyric Acid (IBA) on rooting of three types of thyme spread naturally in Latakia governorate. A stem cuttings of thymus capitatus (Snobar Gableh), Thymus syriacus (Kasab), and thymus cilicicus (Al-Dalia) were collected. and treated with different concentrations of IBA (0, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm) then they were planted under controlled conditions at the greenhouse of the seedlings of olive propagation in Latakia. The root traits (rooting%, number of roots and length of roots), and shoot traits (length of main stem cm, number of shoots and length of shoots) were measured after two months of planting. The results were analyzed according to Randomized Completely Block Design with three replicates. The treatments of IBA showed positive effect on all the studied trait as compared with the control, according to the concentration of IBA and the species studied. The concentration 500 ppm showed the best results over the studied species of thyme in terms of rooting percentage (81.78%), number of roots (139.86) and number of shoots (6.97), while the concentration of 250 ppm gave the highest root length (16.83 cm) and the main stem length (9.5 cm). In general, these concentrations significantly surpassed the other concentrations. T. cilicicus showed the best root characteristics, while T. capitatus had better shoot characteristics , whereas T. syriacus showed intermediate values between the two previous species.

Key words: Thymus spp., IBA, Stem cutting, Rooting percentage.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF