10 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 382 



Use of Potassium Permanganate 



Potassium permanganate has a decidedly beneficial effect on the rooting of 

 cuttings of some species. A solution, one pound in fifteen gallons of water, 

 applied to the rooting medium at the rate of two quarts per square foot, 

 resulted in better roots on cuttings of twenty-three out of twenty-five 

 species and in increased percentages of rooting of softwood cuttings of 

 arrow-wood, dockmackie, flowering dogwood, Tatarian honeysuckle, 

 Japan quince, dwarf flowering almond, Coriius racemosa, Magnolia Sou- 

 langeana, Viburnum Carlcsii, Mains atrosauguinca and Philadclphtis coronarius 

 (14). When potassium permanganate, 18 gm. per square foot, was well 

 worked into sand-peat before the insertion of cuttings taken here in 

 October, they rooted as follows: 



Percentage Rooting 



With Potassium Without 

 Permang-anate It 



Eiionyyniis patens 100 80 



Taxus media 93 40 



Ilex crenafa 100 60 



Thuja occidentalis var. Columbia 86 53 



The good effects of potassium permanganate, not due to anj^ soil- 

 disinfecting action (26), are also marked when it is applied to cuttings of 

 some species rather than to the rooting medium. Rooting of cuttings of 

 black-alder, common privet, and Japanese j'^ew was improved by treat- 

 ment for 24 hours with a solution of one ounce in five gallons water (14), 

 and treatment of cuttings of Kudzu-vine for thirty minutes with a solution 

 of one ounce in eight gallons water improved their rooting more than did 

 treatment with an ordinary root-inducing substance (75). 



Cuttings should not be treated with both potassium permanganate and 

 a root-inducing substance, for the former has a somewhat inactivating 

 effect on the later (109). 



Use of Sugar 



Sugar, common table sugar, alone or in combination with a root-inducing 

 substance, is of benefit in the rooting of cuttings of some species. Treat- 

 ment for 24 hours with a sugar solution (one pound in seven gallons water) 

 improved the rooting of cuttings of black-alder, common privet, and Jap- 

 anese yew (14). October cuttings of ninebark produced longer roots 

 after treatment with sugar and a root-inducing substance than after treat- 

 ment with the latter alone (37). Cuttings of white ash and white pine lived 

 for a longer time if, after treatment with a root-inducing substance, they 

 were immersed for three days in a 5 percent sugar solution (109). Cut- 

 tings of Picea glauca var. conica which were taken here in December rooted 

 39 percent without treatment, 64 percent after treatment (24 hr.) with 

 indolebutyric acid 50 mg. in one liter of water, 84 percent after that treat- 

 ment followed by treatment (24 hr.) in 2.5 percent sugar solution, and 84 

 percent after treatment (24 hr.) in a solution of 50 mg. indolebutyric acid 

 in one liter of 2.5 percent sugar solution. Cuttings were in all cases well 

 rinsed in water upon their removal from sugar solutions. Rooting of 

 November cuttings of Pfitzer juniper and two varieties of Chamaecyparis 

 obtusa was more improved by treatment for 20 hours with indolebutyric acid 



