Physiological Age of Stock Plants Determines Phytohormonal Changes in Leafy Cuttings of Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate adventitious root formation in cuttings obtained from physiologically different old stock material. The ornamental cherry Prunus subhirtella ´Autumnalis´ was used for the experiment. We examined three stock plants, namely a physiologically mature stock plant (about 60 years old) and physiologically juvenile plants (21 years old), which were previously propagated by cuttings, semi-mature stock material and in vitro juvenile stock material. We also investigated the role of phytohormones in the induction phase of adventitious root (AR) formation depending on the physiological age of the stock plant and the time after cutting. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) was used to identify and quantify the phytohormones. The difference in rooting and quality of the developed AR is observed between semi-mature stock and mature stock material. Cuttings from semi-mature plants rooted in 95.00% of cases, while cuttings from mature stock plants only rooted in 68.33%. The high concentration of strigolactones and jasmonic acid (JA) immediately after severance had an inhibitory effect on the development of adventitious roots, especially in cuttings of mature origin. The development of AR is positively influenced by the increase in indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) 4 h after cutting from the stock plant. Our results show that the formation of adventitious root formation depends on the concentration and ratio between different phytohormones.