These experiments were carried out in order to make clear the influence of amount of needles of cuttings, hormone treatment and their interaction on the rooting behavior of Metasequoia cuttings. All cuttings were cut 1.5 nodes long (about 6cm) and a pair of upper sprouts were retained. The cuttings were separated into three series and treated as follows:
Series A; a pair of sprouts retained, series B; 2/3 of the sprouts removed, series C; all sprouts removed.
Each series in the above-mentioned was separated into two groups, the cuttings in the first group were treated with Indole-3-acetic acid and those in the second group were not treated with hormone.
The outline of experimental results are as follows:
(1) All cuttings in series C decayed for several days after planting, therefore, authors could not observe the callus formation and the rooting. On the contrary, all cuttings in series A and B remained alive for the experimental period, and all of them formed callus tissues, but the development of callus tissues was almost the same degree in each plot.
(2) The tendency was recognized that the beginning time of rooting was generally later, percentage of rooted cuttings was lower, number of roots per rooted cuttings was less and total length of roots per rooted cuttings at 15 days after planting was shorter in series B than series A.
(3) If cuttings were treated with hormone in proper consistency, good rooting behavior in some degree could be obtained. However, the number of roots per rooted cuttings was not increased, and the elongation of roots was inhibited more or less in the case of hormone treatment.