"FRANQUEAMIENTO": A NEW VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION TECHNIQUE FOR LOQUAT

The industry of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) in Chili has been based almost exclusively on the production of the cultivar ‘Golden Nugget’, which is of Californian origin and mainly propagated through grafting onto seedling rootstocks. This system produces heterogeneous trees, which later translates to non-uniform production in the orchards. The use of vegetative propagation techniques, such as "franqueamiento" (a type of airlayering developed for avocado), could be of interest as a tool for allowing the propagation of rootstocks and loquat cultivars while maintaining selected characteristics. Young loquat trees were subjected to treatments consisting of variations on the type of injury done to the stems: no injury (control); raising a strip of bark and inserting a wood chip treated with the hormone solution; removal of two patches of bark; and complete stem girdling. The general response of these juvenile trees to the treatments was good. The best result was obtained with the complete stem girdling treatment, which generated the most roots, as much in fresh weight (54.1 g) as in dry weight (19.9 g), and also achieved the best distribution of the roots around the stem, as estimated by the calculation of a root distribution index.