Horticultural Experiments and Training Centre, Chaubattia, Almora
*Present address: Department of Horticulture, N. D. University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad (U. P.).
Anatomical studies of bases of clonal apple stocks indicated that there were marked differences in the anatomical structure of the forced and unforced cuttings. In forced cuttings there was only a single layer of sclerenchymatous ring while the unforced cuttings contained invariably double layer. When these cuttings where placed in warm storage after IBA (2500 ppm) treatment, a break in the continuous ring of sclerenchyma was observed which was also recorded in the unforced cuttings. Cuttings kept in open showed almost no variation in the distribution of sclerenchymatous elements even after IBA treatment. Besides differences in the sclerenchymatous element the number of cortical layers was higher in the unforced cuttings as compared with the forced one's. The number of cambium layers was almost the same at zero time which increased markedly after the warm storage in the forced cuttings. Root initiation was observed to initiate from cambium. Owing to the above mentioned anatomical variations forced cuttings after IBA treatment and bottom heat storage rooted, better than unforced ones.
