EFFECT OF NATURAL SUBSTANCES ON THE ROOTING AND SURVIVABILITY OF GRAPES (VITIS VINIFERA L.) CUTTINGS

Organic farming of grapes is gaining importance with the consumers' awareness. Grapes are propagated through hardwood cuttings, which frequently need chemical-based rooting hormones. Therefore, there was an urgent need to find the alternative rooting hormones acceptable for growing organic grape production. To find out the solution to this problem present investigation was conducted in the Horticulture nursery farms, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab in February 2021. The experiment was conducted in Randomized block design with twelve treatments. Treatments comprising natural substances like cinnamon powder, apple cider, honey, aloe vera, coconut water, vermi extract were used to make different treatments along with synthetic IBA and control for comparison purposes and its combinations in three replications. These treatments were given to hardwood cuttings of the grape cultivar 'Perlette' and were planted in the field. The results indicated that prolonged dip treatment with the combination of natural substance (T7) aloe vera 50%+coconut water 50% was most effective for root induction in the experiment. A maximum survival percentage of 66.8% was observed in cuttings treated with aloe vera 50%+coconut water 50%. Furthermore, natural treatment of T7-aloe vera 50% + coconut water 50% for 12 hours showed a higher number of roots (7.8), root length (3.7 cm), root diameter (2.8 mm) and rooting percentage (70.3%). Therefore, the present study shows that organic hormone consisting of Aloe vera 50% + Coconut water 50% was an excellent alternative to chemical/synthetic rooting hormone.