Presence of leaves on rooting of blackberry

The propagation of blackberry can be done in a sexual or asexual form, being used in commercial production. Use of shoot cuttings has the advantage of the use of materials removed from the plant at the time of pruning, but shows variability in rooting and sprouting. The study aimed to evaluate the influence of the presence of leaves on the rooting of three cultivars of blackberry. The experimental design was randomized blocks with four replications, making a 3x2 factorial, with the cultivar factor represented by three levels ('Guarani', 'Tupy' and 'Xavante') and the factor presence of leaf, for two levels (cutting with and without leaves). The assessments done 115 days after the experiment were: percentage of live cuttings, rooted and callus; longest root length and number of roots per cutting, sprouting length and number of sprouting per cutting, dry mass of sprouting and roots. The cultivars 'Tupy' and 'Xavante' have higher rooting percentage than 'Guarani', beyond root system of better quality. The presence of leaves provides more rooting of hardwood cuttings of blackberry, being essential for the propagation of cultivars 'Guarani', 'Tupy' and 'Xavante' through this method.