Production and rooting of shoots generated from dormant stem sections of maple species

Abstract

Vegetative shoots were forced in the greenhouse from excised stem (branch) sections of dormant Japanese maple (Acer palmatum Thunb.), red maple (Acer rubrum L.), and sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.). Softwood shoots generated in this way were used as stem cuttings in a subsequent adventitious rooting study. Data indicate that maple shoots can be forced using this technique, but that both the percentage of stem sections forming shoots and the number of shoots produced are highly variable among both species and clones. Whereas Japanese and red maple formed shoots on >50% of stem sections, shoots were generated on only 20% of sugar maple stem sections. Significant variability was also observed in rooting response, with red maple shoots rooting at much higher percentages (60%) than either Japanese maple (26%) or sugar maple (15%).