EFFECT OF SOAKING THE LOCAL ORANGE GRAFTS WITH THE GROWTH REGULATOR BENZYL-ADENINE AND ON THREE ROOTSTOCKS OF CITRUS

The study was conducted in the Lath house of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad for the period from March to November 2013. To study the effect of soaking local orange grafts in the BA growth regulator on three rootstocks of citrus, the study included two factors: The first factor is citrus rootstocks (Sour orange, Volkameriana lemon, Cleopatra mandarin). The second factor is to soaking into the growth regulator of Benzyl- Adenine at three levels of (0, 150, 250 mg.L-1). The experiment was designed according to Randomized Complete Blocks Design (RCBD) as a factorial experiment with three replicates. The results were summarized as follows: The cultivar had a significant effect, so Volkameriana was excelled in success rate of grafts, plant height, number of leaves and branches, leaves content of chlorophyll, phosphorus and potassium. While the Cleopatra mandarin rootstock excelled by giving the highest content of carbohydrates in the leaves reached of 3.48%, while the sour orange rootstock excelled in the leaves content of nitrogen. As for the effect of soaking grafts in (BA). It was showed that the spraying treatment of with Benzyl- Adenine at a concentration of (250 mg.L-1) excelled in all studied traits (success rate of grafts, plant height, number of leaves and branches, leaves content of chlorophyll, phosphorus and potassium). As for the interaction between the rootstock and the soaking levels in the Benzyl- Adenine, while the interaction treatment between the volkameriana and soaking of the grafts in Benzyl- Adenine with a concentration of 250 mg.L-1 was given the highest rate of all studied traits