Impact of propagation media and different light levels on vegetative propagation of begonias

Abstract

Begonia is a popular flowering and foliage ornamental plant. Details of the propagation of begonia such as media, light or shade requirement and other needed information are not readily available. Homogenous wedge leaf cuttings of two different varieties of (Begonia heracleifolia and Begonia abelcrriere ) were used to propagate young new plants in five different combinations of growing media composed of sand, top soil and coir dust and four light levels (37%, 60%, 79%, and 100%) with and without application of rooting hormones. A commonly used rooting hormone "Naphylelacetic acid" (0.3%) as a rooting promoter was used to test the effectiveness in propagation. Black polythene bags were used as propagation containers. Metal frames were used to obtain half circle shaped propagators. Transparent polythene was used to protect the propagators from excess rainwater. A Complete Randomized Design was used with three replicates and data was analyzed using SAS statistical software package.It revealed that, the application of Napthylacetic acid as a rooting had no impact on propagation of Begonia varieties studied. Further a rooting medium composed of top soil: coir dust = 1:1 and 60% light levels were the most suitable conditions for the successful propagation of begonias through leaf cuttings.