Effect of Varying Concentration of Auxins and Stem Length on Growth and Development of Jatropha curcas L.

A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of varying hormonal treatments and length of cuttings of clonal materials on the sprouting and rooting abilities of Jatropha curcas L. Two stem cutting lengths: 30cm and 60cm were pre-treated with two types of auxins: Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) and Indole-3-Butyric Acid (IBA) at four concentration levels: 0 (control), 100, 150 and 200mgl-1. The experiment was a factorial laid as randomized complete block design. Results showed that cutting length and hormone concentration had significant effect (P<0.05) on all parameters. The 60cm cuttings performed better than the 30cm cuttings in terms of sprouting, rooting and plant biomass accumulation. The untreated cuttings (control) showed better development than those treated with NAA and IBA. Significant interaction effects were observed between the cutting length and hormone concentration for all parameters (p<0.05). The 60cm cuttings performed better when untreated with hormone while 30cm cuttings performed best when treated with IBA at 200mgl-1. Hence, 60 cm untreated cuttings could probably be used for large scale propagation of J. curcas while 30cm cuttings required hormonal treatment for high performance.Keywords: Jatropha, cuttings, auxins, stem length, concentratio