Abilities of Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f., Citrus tangelo and Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck at propagation by cuttings in sandy soil

Coming from the Latin acrumen which means sour, the word citrus was given in antiquity to trees with acid fruits. Indeed, citrus fruits refer to several species, the best known of which are oranges, grapefruits, mandarins, clementines and lemons. Species of the genus Citrus are well known but very little studied in Niger. It is with the aim of providing more data that the present study was carried out. The general objective was to study the ability to propagate by cuttings in three citrus species (Citrus limon, Citrus tangelo and Citrus sinensis). The study was carried out on station, in an experimental plot of the Faculty of Agronomy. Polyethylene plastic pots were used for the cultivation of the cuttings. The substrate is composed only of sand. The cuttings are of two types: type 1 with a diameter of between [0.5 to 1] cm and type 2 with a diameter of [1.5 to 2] cm. Among the two types of diameters, part of the cuttings was covered with plastic in order to be able to distinguish the cuttings which will give a maximum rate of recovery. The observations related to the duration of budding, the latency time and the evaluation of the root system. The results showed that the cuttings begin to bud 5 days on average after cultivation. The maximum recovery rate was obtained for Citrus limon cuttings with 93.75% for diameters between [0.5 to 1] cm and 87.5% for those between [1.5 to 2] cm. The root ramifications gave 3 months after the establishment of the cuttings in a cutting of Citrus limon 7 main roots and 174 secondary roots. None of the budded cuttings of Citrus sinensis and Citrus tangelo gave roots. For the cuttings that were not covered with plastic, only two of them budded without root branching in C tangelo and one in C sinensis.