Domestication of Annona muricata lin (soursop) by marcotting

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effects of rooting substrate, branch positions and branch diameter on the onset of rooting and the growth of root strands. Nine trees of Annona muricata were selected for this study. Four marcots were set on each tree to make a total of thirty-six marcots. On one tree using coconut peat, sawdust and mixture of coconut peat and sawdust as the rooting medium; two branches were selected at the upper position (>1.5m): one of the branches is 1 – 2.3cm and the other is 3 – 4.5cm. Two branches (1 – 2.3cm; 3 – 4.5cm) were also selected at the lower position (<1.5m), this was replicated three times and the same was done for the remaining two rooting substrate (mixture (coconut peat and sawdust 50:50) and sawdust). The result of the study revealed that, coconut peat had the lowest days for time taken to first root growth (63days), compared to sawdust and mixture. The study also established that big diameter branch 3-4.5cm was better than small diameter branch which had mean value of 7.17 for coconut peat, while 4.83 and 4.67 were recorded for sawdust and mixture respectively. Lower branch position tends to produce more root mass in coconut peat medium with mean value of 7.17 while sawdust and the mixture recorded 5.17 mean value respectively. The effect of rooting substrate on the number successful marcots indicated that, coconut peat and the mixture had the highest percentage (100%), while sawdust had the lowest (91.67). Effect of branch position on number of successful marcots also showed that marcots set on lower position had higher percentage (60%). Similarly, marcots set on big sized branch obtained higher percentage (57.14%). It was recommended that, artificial regeneration of Annona muricata should be encouraged and adopted by teaching farmers how to go about the marcotting techniques.