INFLUENCE OF SUBSTRATE COMPOSITION AND STEM POSITION ON SURVIVAL, ROOTING PERFORMANCE AND EARLY GROWTH OF BOUGAINVILLEA CUTTINGS

An experiment was conducted in the Department of Horticulture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2026. The goal was to study how stem position and substrate composition affect the survival, rooting physiology, and early growth of Bougainvillea glabra cuttings. The research used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and various treatment combinations. Apical, middle, and basal stem cuttings were planted in different substrates: soil (M₁), sand (M₂), soil + areca palm fiber (1:1, v/v) (M₃), sand + areca palm fiber (1:1, v/v) (M₄), soil + vermicompost (1:1, v/v) (M₅), and sand + vermicompost (1:1, v/v) (M₆). The results revealed significant differences in days to sprout initiation, days to root initiation, number of roots, number of leaves and stem diameter.  The best overall performance was recorded in basal cuttings grown in sand plus vermicompost (M₆S₃), which produced the earliest root and leaf initiation along with the highest number of roots, highest number of leaves, and largest stem diameter, closely followed by basal cuttings in sand plus areca palm fiber (M₄S₃) and sand alone (M₂S₃). In contrast, the poorest performance was observed in apical cuttings grown in soil alone (M₁S₁), which showed the slowest root and leaf initiation and the lowest values for root number, leaf number, and stem diameter. The study concluded that both stem position and substrate composition are important for successfully propagating Bougainvillea glabra, with basal cuttings paired with well-aerated, nutrient-rich substrates such as sand plus vermicompost or sand plus areca palm fiber giving the strongest rooting physiology and early growth, while apical cuttings in soil consistently gave the weakest results.