<i>In Situ</i> Clonal Propagation of Stevia (<i>Stevia rebaudiana</i>, Bertoni) Using Hormones

Abstract

The sweet taste of Stevia leaves makes it a potential substitute for table sugar which can be used to sweeten foods and beverages. However, the limited planting materials become a constrained to large production ; hence the experiment aims to investigate the different part and methods of propagation for stevia specifically use of different rooting hormones. The experiment w as laid out in 3 × 4 factorial arrange d in Randomized Complete Block Design. It consist s of 3 types of cutting (shoot tips, intermediate stem and basal stem part) and four kind s of commercial hormones (miracle gro, rootech gel, NAA and control). Results showed that the highest percentage survival of stevia was obtained from shoot tips (93.92%) which differed statistically from those intermediate (91.00%) and basal stem cuttings (85.51%). On the other hand, basal stem cutting significantly has the lowest percent survival. Results revealed that shoot tip cuttings treated with Rootech Gel developed roots early (6.92 days), with most number of roots (13.70), longer roots (3.33 cm), and 96.38% survival.