Vegetative propagation of camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (hbk) McVaugh) by grafting in different understocks from plants of the family Myrtaceae.

Author(s)

Eduardo Suguino

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2002-07-11

Examining board members

Salim Simao; Paulo Sérgio Rodrigues de Araújo; Joao Alexio Scarpare Filho

• Advisor: Salim Simao

Abstract

The camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (H.B.K.) McVaugh) culture raises a great commercial interest and has been the target of industries that want to explore the agroindustrial aspects of the fruit pulp, as well as its potential pharmacological applications. Due to the lack of knowledge about its management in places far from its natural environment, characterized by areas of Amazon region, flooded during rain season, there is not enough cultivated areas to support a industrial scale exploration. The objective of this experiment is evaluate which kind of grafting and understock are suitable to be used for the plant propagation in dry land. It was used the completely randomized design, where two hundred and forty plants, of camu-camu, guava (Psidium guajava L.) and surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora L.) were selected as undestocks and received different kind of camu-camu grafting (cleft graft, side cleft graft, splice graft and colon cleft graft) producing twelve treatments. Each treatment was formed using sixty plants of the same understock specie, divided in experimental units of twelve plants with five repetitions. These treatments were evaluated monthly during a period of eight months. During the evaluation period, both guava and surinam cherry understocks showed incompatibility with camu-camu grafts. The statistic analisys were done by ki-square test with 5% of significance level, referring to the grafting method in camu-camu understocks. The analisys showed that the side cleft graft method resulted in 78,96% that was statistically different from others. Graftings with cleft colon graft (53,96%) and cleft graft (47,71%) were intermediate and not statistically different. The splice graft, presented statistically lower percentage of formed plants (25,83%). Laminas with the vegetative material of camu-camu, guava and surinam cherry used, were prepared for microscopic studies, in order to evaluate the anatomic aspects related with incompatibility process. The studies have allowed the observation of cellular proliferation and established vascular connection in the compatible material (camu-camu), while no indication of cellular division, indicative of the callus formation, and also the accumulation of phenolics substances were observed in incompatible material (guava and surinam cherry). All four kinds of grafting methods evaluated can be used, however the side cleft graft method presented higher percentage of satisfactory union using grafts and unsderstocks of camu-camu. Due to incompatibility problems, the vegetative propagation of camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (H.B.K.) McVaugh) is not recommended in understocks of guava (Psidium guajava L.) and surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora L.). (AU)