evaluation of rooting media, cultivars and mycorrhizal fungi on some rooting traits of olea europaea l. cuttings

Low and inconsistent rooting remains a major constraint to the vegetative propagation of olea europaea l., owing to genotype-dependent rooting capacity and the influence of rooting substrate and beneficial micro-organisms. therefore, this study evaluated the interactive effects of rooting substrate (perlite, cocopeat, perlite+ cocopeat), olive cultivar (zard, koroneiki, roghani), and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (control, g. intraradices, g. mossaea, g. intraradices+ g. mossaea) on the rooting performance of olive stem cuttings under greenhouse conditions using a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications in research institute of zabol on 2025. the results demonstrated that rooting performance was strongly influenced by the combined effects of cultivar, substrate, and mycorrhizal inoculation. inoculation with glomus intraradices consistently enhanced callus formation, rooting percentage, and the number of roots per cutting compared with the non-inoculated treatment suggesting that arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis promoted adventitious root formation through improved mineral nutrition, enhanced water relations, and increased root growth potential. cocopeat promoted the highest callus formation, whereas perlite produced the greatest number of roots, indicating superior root development. rooting responses also varied among cultivars, with the zard cultivar exhibiting the highest root production, particularly when grown in perlite. the highest rooting percentage was achieved in the cocopeat–perlite substrate inoculated with g. intraradices. these findings demonstrate that integrating an appropriate rooting substrate with arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation can substantially improve the vegetative propagation of olive, providing an effective strategy for producing high-quality nursery plants.