Effect of Mother Plant Management on Propagation of Jojoba Cuttings in Semi-arid Areas of Voi, Kenya

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Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis L.) is a dioecious high value desert shrub growing in the arid areas and produces oil similar to that obtained from sperm whale. However, it’s a difficult-to-root plant and rooting is influenced by the management of the mother plant as the source of cuttings. An experiment was set up to determine the effects of mother plant management regimes on the performance of stem cuttings of Jojoba raised in a polythene sheet tunnel using macro-propagation techniques in Voi, Kenya from September 2012 to January 2013. The experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 8 treatments replicated 3 times. The treatments comprised of management regimes applied on the mother plants prior to the harvesting of cuttings for propagation. These were manure, micro-catchment, irrigation and their combinations.  The cuttings were harvested and then dipped in 5000 mgL^-1 indole butyric acid (IBA) for 10 seconds before planting in polythene bags where they were left to grow for 5 months. Data was collected on root, shoot and foliage variables and ANOVA was carried out using SAS analysis while the significant means were separated using LSD at p < 0.05. Results showed significant differences among the management regimes in all the variables measured with the management regime combinations being more superior while micro catchment alone showed significantly the lowest values in all the variables. However, there were no significant differences between the highest values relative to the control. The latter showed highest values in height and root length among the variables measured while the others were shared among the management regime combinations.  This study implies that Jojoba mother plants do not require any special management prior to harvesting of cuttings for propagation.