Morphological and production evaluation of Eucalyptus benthamii clonal mini-garden regarding to Zn and B

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the mini-stumps survival and the mini-cuttings production of Eucalyptus benthamii regarding to Zn and B concentrations during successive collection of shoots. Shoots were collected from mini-stumps (BP101, BP118 and BP120 clones) fertigated with nutrient solutions containing different concentrations of Zn and B (S1 - free of Zn and B, S2 - 0.5 mg L^-1 Zn, S3 - 0.5 mg L^-1 B, S4 - 0.5 mg L^-1 Zn and B, S5 - 1.0 mg L^-1 Zn and B, S6 - 2.0 mg L^-1 Zn and B). Eight shoot collections of the clonal mini-garden were performed. The mini-stumps survival, mini-cuttings production, leaves number, nodes number, shoots length, internodes interval and visual appearance of mini-stumps to identify symptoms of nutritional deficiency or toxicity were evaluated. The mini-stumps survival, mini-cuttings production, leaves number, nodes number, shoots length and internodes interval varied significantly among to treatments, and the nutritive solutions S5 and S6 presented the best responses.