Vegetative propagation of Echeveria gibbiflora 'Helena', through the generation of vegetative shoots in floral stems

E. Salomé-Castañeda, N. Álvarez-Acevedo, J. Landaverde-Vaca
The Echeveria genus (Crassulaceae) offers a great diversity of shapes, sizes and colours in its leaves and flowers, which gives it desirable aesthetic characteristics in ornamental horticulture. In addition, this genus offers agronomic characteristics that favour its production, such as adaptation to environments with little water availability and efficiency in the use of it, as well as ease of propagation. There are several methods of vegetative propagation applicable to this genus, for example, in vitro propagation, production of plants through leaf, or shoots production in the floral stem of the plant. It has been observed that in some species, the pruning of the floral stem before the opening of the flowers, favours the generation of shoots that can be used to rapidly multiply plants of commercial interest. The objective of the present study was to analyse the production of shoots from flower stems, in Echeveria gibbiflora 'Helena' that includes plants of big size since under cultivation, its rosette reaches 50 cm in diameter and its floral stems can measure more than 1.5 m in height. Four treatments were established and evaluated. The pruning of the flower stems, the effect of the pruning of rosette leaves and the pruning of the bracts of the floral stem, were evaluated in the production of vegetative shoots. In the results it was observed that keeping the leaves of the rosette while removing the bracts in the floral stems, favours the production of a greater number of vegetative shoots.
Salomé-Castañeda, E., Álvarez-Acevedo, N. and Landaverde-Vaca, J. (2019). Vegetative propagation of Echeveria gibbiflora 'Helena', through the generation of vegetative shoots in floral stems. Acta Hortic. 1263, 99-104
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1263.12
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1263.12
asexual propagation, Crassulaceae
English

Acta Horticulturae