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Abstract
This research analyzed the effects of different rooting agents and substrates on asexual reproduction and development of ficus (Ficus benjamina) seedlings. The study was carried out in a commercial nursery located in El Triunfo county, Guayas province, Ecuador. A completely random design with a 2x4 factorial arrangement was used, with 4 repetitions. The following variables were evaluated: yield, vigor of plants, emission of shoots, length of roots, weight of roots at 60 days after sowing. Different treatments were used with substrates based on river sand, cocoa leaves and yellow soil, in which the effectiveness of different combinations of aloe gel and coconut water, as rooting agents, was evaluated against a commercial formulation of naphthalacetic acid (ANA). The best treatment for rooting and propagation was yellow soil + rice husk + aloe gel, which reached a performance of 54.17% and 1.95 sprouts, surpassing the commercial hormone, with a performance of 41.67% and 1.15 sprouts. In order to determine the economic effect of the treatments, the nursery price of a ficus plant ($1.25 USD) was used as base and 1000 propagated cuttings as reference. Thus, it could be determined that substrate based on yellow soil + rice husk + aloe gel obtained a utility of $165.10 USD, with a benefit/cost ratio equal to $1.41, which exceeded the use of the commercial hormone in which the utility was $-195.67 with a benefit/cost ratio of $0.52. Results indicate that the combination of yellow soil and rice husk as substrates and aloe gel as natural rooting, constitute an alternative to commercial hormone for the propagation of ficus cuttings in nurseries.
Keywords: Indolacetic acid; indolbutyric acid; naphthalacetic acid; phytohormone; asexual reproduction; substrate.