Vegetative propagation of Acalypha hispidathrough cuttings with different types of media

Acalypha hispida is a wild flowering herbaceous plant commonly called as Red-hot cat’s tail or Monkey tail, belongs to family Euphorbiaceae. It is commonly propagated by stem cuttings, but successful propagation of Acalypha hispida by stem cutting is harder, and even the basic information on these aspects are limited. Hence, an experiment was conducted to determine the effects of stem cutting types and growing media on the successful propagation of Acalypha hispida. Four types of stem cuttings (shoot tip, soft wood, semi hardwood and hardwood) and three types of media (pure sand, pure coir dust and 1:1 mixture of sand: coir dust v:v) were used, and the experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with 3×4 factor factorial arrangement. Data was analyzed by SAS 9.1.3 software. It was observed that there was a significant (P>0.05) interaction between the cutting types and media used in all the tested parameters except survival rate. All the type of cuttings planted in sand with coir dust showed highest percentage of rooted shoots with well formed root system. Hardwood cuttings planted in pure coir dust and 1:1 ratio of sand: coir dust showed not significant virtuous root weight (0.15g, 0.16g), number of leaves (13.10, 13.43), and shoot length (3.53 cm , 3.34 cm). Cutting types showed significant (P>0.05) in survival and hardwood cuttings showed highest survival rate (80.56%) compared to others. Accordingly, it could be concluded that hardwood cutting as the best material planted in a 1:1 mixture of sand with coir dust and pure coir dust medium can be used to propagate Acalypha hispida plants successfully.