Selection of Jacaranda mimosifolia genotypes for vegetative propagation by minicutting

This work aimed to select Jacaranda mimosifolia genotypes for vegetative propagation by mini-cutting. Evaluated the competence of adventitious rooting of minicuttings of genotypes during six successive collects. J. mimosifolia genotypes were established in a clonal mini-garden for shoots production and mini-cuttings supply. In each of the six collections, the minicuttings were planted in tubes containing commercial substrate and vermiculite. Mini-cuttings were evaluated for the rooting percentage and the number of rooted mini-cuttings after 60 days of cultivation in the greenhouse. The components of variance were estimated based on repeated measures by the Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) method, the prediction of phenotypic and genotypic values by the Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP). Genetic variability was observed at accuracies of 0.84 and 0.74, for the number of produced and the number of rooted minicuttings, respectively, in the six evaluations. Seven J. mimosifolia genotypes were selected for the number of rooted minicuttings, resulting in a selection gain of 53.5%. The results of this work show a high potential of this strategy of genetic improvement of forest species for vegetative propagation with high gains from selection, can be applied to other species.