الفهرس 
Introduction
First ExperimentOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Two different field experiments were conducted during the two successive seasons of 2004 and 2005 in the Nursery and Laboratory of Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University.
Air – layers were made on 10 – years old Ficus elastic var. Decora trees.
First experiment was focused on the effect of two layering date treatments (April 6th and June 6th) and six rooting media, namely, peatmoss, clay, compost, peatmoss + clay, peatmoss + compost and clay + compost (1 : 1 by weight for any mixture) on air – layer rooting.
Second experiments aim to explore the influence of the same two layering dates (April 6th and June 6th) and six different activating root materials, namely, control, mineral NPK, a mixture of auxins, biogein, phosphorein and a mixture of mineral NPK and auxins on air – layer rooting.
The main results, for each experiment, could be summarized as follows :
First Experiment
A: Effect of layering dates
Rooting :
● Layering date of June 6 was superior than layering date of April 6 for number of main roots/layer and fresh and dry weight/layer.
Vegetative growth characters :
● The significantly highest values of number of leaves / layer, leaf area, leaves fresh and dry weight / layer, stem length and diameter as well as stem fresh and dry weight / layer resulted from the treatment of layering dated on June 6, comparing with that of April 6.
Chemical constituent :
● Layering date of June treatments had satisfactory effect on chemical constituents of the basal portion of layer, auxin – like substances, biological activity soluble sugars, amino acid (in the second season) and C / N ratio when compared to the April layering date in the both seasons.
● The highest values of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents in the fresh leaves, as well as, N, P and K % (in the first season only) in the dry leaves significantly resulted from the layers dated on June 6, while the least values resulted from the layers dated on April 6, in the two seasons.
B: Effect of rooting media
Rooting :
● The peatmoss rooting medium gave significant increase of roots number / layer, and fresh and dry roots / layer compared with that other rooting media except peatmoss + clay soil. The highest number of roots and the heaviest fresh and dry weights / layer were obtained with peatmoss followed a mixture of peatmoss + clay soil.
Vegetative growth characters :
● The layering in the peatmoss gave significantly higher values of number of leaves / layer, leaf area, leaves fresh and dry weight/ layer as well as, stem length, diameter and fresh and dry weights of stem / layer compared with other rooting media except peatmoss + clay soil. The highest values were obtained due to peatmoss followed by peatmoss + clay soil in the two seasons.
Chemical constituents :
● Auxin – like substances, biological activity, soluble sugars, amino acids and C / N ratio at the base of layering at roots initiation time (one month after dated) were significantly increased due to peatmoss rooting media comparing with other tested rooting media except peatmoss + clay soil, in the two seasons.
● The highest values of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents in the fresh leaves, as well as, N % in the two seasons and P and K% in the second season significantly resulted due to peatmoss as a rooting media regarding other rooting media treatments. The best results were obtained due to peatmoss followed by peatmoss + clay for all previous parameters, except for K %, the clay soil gave higher values in the two seasons.
C: Effect of the interaction between layering and rooting media
Rooting :
● Layering dated on June 6 in a peatmoss or peatmoss + clay soil were considered the best treatment for root number / layer and fresh and dry weight of roots / layer.
Vegetative growth characters :
● The interaction between layering dates and rooting media was not significant for number of leaves / layer and stem diameter in both seasons. Also, it was not significant for stem fresh and dry weight / layer in the first season.
● The interaction was significant for leaf area, fresh and dry weight of leaves/layer and stem length, in the two seasons. Also, it was significant for stem fresh and dry weight / layer in the second season.
● In all parameters the best results were obtained due to layering dated on June 6 with peatmoss followed by peatmoss + clay soil as a rooting medium.
Chemical constituents :
● The interaction between layering dates and rooting media was not significant, in the two seasons, for auxin – like substances, C / N ratio in basal portion of layers, as well as, carotenoids content in the fresh leaves and P and K% in the dry leaves. Also, it was not significant for N % in the second season.
● The interaction was significant for biological activity, soluble sugars, amino acids in basal portion of layers, in the two seasons.
● In fresh weight of leaves, the interaction was significant for chlorophyll a and b in the two seasons.
● In the dry leaves of Ficus layers, the interaction was significant for N % in the first season.
● The best results were obtained due to layers dated on June 6 with peatmoss followed by peatmoss plus clay soil.
Second Experiment
A: Effect of layering dates
Rooting :
● Layering date of June 6 significantly increased number of roots / layer, higher root fresh and dry weights / layer than that of on April 6 layering date.
Vegetative growth characters :
● Layering date of June 6 significantly increased leaf area, leaves fresh and dry weight / layer, stem length and diameter / layer, as well as, stem fresh and dry weight per layer comparing with that of April 6 layering date, in the two seasons.
● Layering dated on June 6 had not significant affected for number of leaves per layer, in the two seasons.
Chemical constituents :
● The results cleared that the layers dated on June 6 caused a significantly increase in auxin – like substances, biological activity, soluble sugars and C / N ratio in the basal portion of layers over the layering dated on April 6 in the two seasons.
● Amino acids was not significantly effected by layering date.
● Layering date of June 6 caused significantly increased for chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids in fresh leaves, as well as, N and K % in the dry leaves comparing with those of layering dated on April 6 in the two seasons.
● Layering dated on June 6 had not significant affected for P % in the two seasons.
B: Effect of activating root materials
Rooting
● All activating root materials gave significantly increased number of roots / layer, as well as, root fresh and dry weight / layer in comparison with that of the control in the two seasons. The highest values resulted from the treatment of a combination between auxins plus mineral NPK in the two seasons.
Vegetative growth characters :
● All activating root materials caused significantly increased for number of leaves / layer, leaf area and leaves fresh and dry weight / layer, as well as, stem diameter and stem fresh and dry weight / layer in comparison with that of control, in the two seasons. The best results were obtained due to auxins plus mineral NPK.
Chemical constituents :
● All activating root materials tested gave significantly increased for auxin – like substances, biological activity, soluble sugars and C/N ratio in the basal portion of layer in comparison with that of control treatment. The best results were obtained due to auxin plus mineral NPK in the two seasons.
● The significantly highest values of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids in fresh leaves, as well as, N, P and K % in the dry leaves of Ficus layers resulted from the treatment of auxins plus mineral NPK.
C: Effect of layering dates x activating root materials
Rooting :
● The interaction was significant in the two seasons for number of main roots / layer. Also, it was significant for fresh and dry weight of roots / layer, only in the second season in comparison with that of control treatment.
● The highest increase in number of main roots / layer and roots fresh and dry weight / layer were found with June 6 layering date and treated with auxins plus mineral NPK.
Vegetative growth characters :
● The interaction was significant in the two seasons for leaf area, leaves fresh and dry weight / layer, as well as, stem length and stem fresh and dry weight / layer, while, it was not significant in the two seasons for number of leaves / layer, as well as, stem diameter. The best results were obtained due to layers dated on June and treated with auxins plus mineral NPK.
Chemical constituents
● The interaction was significant for auxin – like substances, biological activity, soluble sugars and C / N ratio in basal portion of layers, while it was not significant for amino acids in the two seasons. The best values were obtained due to layering date of June with auxins + mineral NPK.
● The interaction was significant in the two seasons for chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents and N and K % in the two seasons.
● In June 6 layering date, auxins plus mineral NPK as activating root materials gave the highest values for tested most chemical constituents.
RECOMMENDITION
First Experiment
So, it is recommended to prepare layerings of Ficus elastica var. Decora on June 6 layering date and used peatmoss or peatmoss plus clay soil (1 :1 by weight) as a rooting medium.
Second Experiment
It could be advised to prepare layerings of Ficus on June 6 date and treated them with a mixture of auxins (IBA, IAA, NAA each at 150 ppm) plus mineral NPK (0.1 : 0.2 : 0.1 g / 150 g medium) or with biofertilizer treatment (Phosphorein or Biogein).