fig fruit represents an important constituent of the diet , because of their nutritional and medicinal values .
this type of diet is considered one of the healthiest and is associated with longevity .
figs are an excellent source of minerals , vitamins , polyphenols , and dietary fiber ; they are fat and cholesterol - free and have a high antioxidant activity .
figs have recently attracted a great deal of attention and are widespread throughout the world .
the world produces over one million tons of figs yearly , of which 82% are produced in mediterranean countries . in tunisia ,
the production is about 29  000  tons ; it represents 3% of total world production .
the fig is an economically important fruit species which is cultivated extensively in southeast regions .
fig nursery plants production is mainly based on cuttings taken from the mother tree and placed in a rooting , which will eventually produce roots and shoots [ 68 ] . the traditional method for growing fig consisted in taking cuttings from one- or two - year - old shoots and directly planting them in soil to obtain new trees .
however , the investigation on ways to propagate fig tree material and produce vigorous and healthy fig plants under field conditions becomes necessary in order to develop fig sector .
the objective of this study was to characterize and compare fig nursery plants of some local fig cultivars by using hardwood cuttings under field conditions . in this way ,
five cultivars and six cuttings sizes were compared in order to optimize the propagation method of fig in tunisia .
in this research , hardwood cuttings of 4 uniferous ( one production per year ) fig cultivars (  bayoudhi ,   jemaoui ,   ragoubi ,  and  zidi  ) , one biferous ( two productions per year ) (  bither  ) , and one caprifig ( male fig ) (  bouharrag  ) were used as plant material .
fig tree is a species having high level of adaptation to different soil types and dry conditions .
these cultivars are frequently cultivated for producing fresh and sun drying fig in arid region of tunisia ( 100200  mm annual precipitation ) .
these ones are widely grown in southern tunisia and were described in a previous work [ 10 , 11 ] .
hardwood cuttings were taken at the beginning of february 2009 and february 2010 , from adult fig trees of the germplasm collection of arid land institute ( ira)medenine , located in el gordhab  tataouine ( tunisia ) . 

it consists in comparing the ability of cutting of 5 cultivars (  bayoudhi ,  
jemaoui ,   ragoubi ,   zidi ,  and  bouharrag  ) .
ten cuttings per replicate and per cultivar were used , with a total of 150 cuttings .
it consists in comparing the ability of cutting of 5 cultivars (  bayoudhi ,  
jemaoui ,   ragoubi ,   zidi ,  and  bouharrag  ) .
ten cuttings per replicate and per cultivar were used , with a total of 150 cuttings .
it was involved on the cultivar  bither  with 6 cuttings types as described below :  type 1 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 2 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 3 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 4 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 5 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 6 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoots , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( > 2  cm ) . 
 
it was involved on the cultivar  bither  with 6 cuttings types as described below :  type 1 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 2 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 3 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 4 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 5 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ;  type 6 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoots , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( > 2  cm ) .
type 1 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ; type 2 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ; type 3 : cuttings of one - year - old shoot , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ; type 4 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 30  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ; type 5 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoot , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ; type 6 : cuttings of 2-year - old shoots , length ( 60  cm ) , and diameter ( > 2  cm ) .
ten cuttings per replicate and per cutting types were used , with a total of 180 cuttings . during this research
, cuttings were planted directly in rooting units ( 2.5  0.65  m ) under field conditions .
cuttings were planted in an inclined position ( angle of 45 ) on sandy soils , where 3/4 of cutting is sinking into the soil at the professional agricultural training center ( cfpa ) el gordhab  tataouine ( tunisia ) .
all plants were irrigated by submersion technique with 40  l / rooting  unit/15 days on the early morning during the course of the experiment in the three seasons .
maintenance works such as weed control and hoeing were carried out during the whole vegetation period .
root emergence percentage , number of emerged buds / nursery plant , length of nursery plant from the soil surface , and diameter of nursery plant were measured on the section  5  cm higher than soil surface and number of leaves / nursery plant . at the drawing out of young plants , cumulative growth ( cutting length + new growth ) of nursery plant and number of roots / nursery plant were determined [ 12 , 14 ] .
all parameters were measured at the end of the vegetation period ( almost 8 months after plantation ) . emerged buds , leaves , and roots of each plant were counted manually .
data were subjected to analysis of variance ( anova ) , using statbox version 6.40 . in case of significant cultivars and cutting type 's effects , comparison of values
was performed by means of the least significant difference ( lsd ) test at a significance level of 0.05 , as the percentage root emergence ( re % ) was calculated by the means of three replications .
the descriptive data analysis revealed a high variability among all the morphological characters of young plant fig cultivars studied under the field conditions .
the most widely varied characters were root emergence percentage ( 10%90% ) and cumulative growth of nursery plant ( 32112  cm ) .
considerable range of variation was also noticed in length of nursery plant ( 4 to 70  cm ) and number of leaves / nursery plant ; it varied from 3 leaves to 63 leaves , whereas very low variation was noted in number of emerged buds / nursery plant , diameter of nursery plant , and number of roots / nursery plant ( table 2 ) .
the mean values of all morphological characteristics observed were statically different at a 5% level ( table 3 ) .
this indicates a certain variation within cultivars , especially for length , diameter of nursery plants , number of leaves , and cumulative growth of nursery plants .
root emergence percentage ( % re ) had the highest values ( 65% ) in  jemaoui  and  rogabi  cultivars and the lowest values ( 15% ) in  bayoudhi . 
nursery plants characteristics like length of nursery plant ( lp ) , diameter of nursery plant ( dp ) , cumulative growth of nursery plant ( ag ) , and number of roots / nursery plant ( nr ) exhibit the highest values in cultivars  bayoudhi .
 finally , the number of leaves / nursery plant ( nl ) was significantly high in cultivars  bouharrag 
( 37 leaves ) and  bayoudhi  ( 27 leaves ) . the result of this part
can provide that the cultivars choice is very important to produce sufficient amounts of vigorous nursery plants .
cultivar is very adapted to agroecological conditions , which can be eventually developed by farmers .
moreover , the length of nursery plant ( lp ) , diameter of nursery plant ( dp ) , and number of roots ( nr ) are very important quality characters for selection of nursery plants of fig cultivars
. results of the descriptive data analysis recorded high morphological variation in the plant material derived from the 6 fig cutting types of the cultivar  bither ,  for all the traits .
the most widely varied parameters were root emergence percentage ( 090% ) , length of nursery plant ( 377  cm ) , and number of roots / nursery plant ( 029 roots ) ( table 4 ) . results of 6 cutting types for the cultivar  bither  analysis showed a significant difference at a level of 5% in all the studied characters ( table 5 ) .
the length of nursery plant ( lp ) , diameter of nursery plant ( dp ) , cumulative growth of nursery plant ( cg ) , and number of roots / nursery plant ( nr ) showed high significant difference .
results revealed that root emergence percentage ( re % ) had the highest value in cutting type 3 and the lowest value in type 6 .
also , type 3 exhibits the highest means of number of roots / nursery plant ( nr ) , length of nursery plant ( lp ) , and number of leaves / nursery plant ( nl ) .
the cutting type 5 was significantly high in the cumulative growth trait in nursery plant ( cg ) .
finally , the number of roots / nursery plant ( nr ) presents the highest value in cutting type 5 .
the findings of the study put forth that cutting characteristics ( length , diameter , and age ) affected the growth and quality of fig plants . moreover , cutting length affected the length ( lp ) and cumulative growth ( cg ) of fig nursery plant . the use of long cuttings ( 4060  cm ) is recommended to produce vigorous fig nursery plants .
the results achieved in this study showed that propagation of fig plant material under field conditions can be applied and should not require sophisticated equipment [ 6 , 12 ] .
the values of characters measured on nursery fig plants in the present study were compared with those from other countries , namely , morocco [ 12 , 15 ] , turkey [ 14 , 16 ] , iran , thailand , and chile .
similar percentage of rooted cuttings on some moroccan varieties propagated by using hardwood stem cutting under field conditions was found .
 chaari ,   aqounaq el hmam ,   ghouddane ,   ournaki ,  and kadota presented high values of % root emergence ; 89 , 98 , 94 , 87 , and 88% , respectively .
cultivar  sarilop  from turkey has revealed high similarity in morphological characteristics of nursery plants with  bayoudhi  and  jemaoui  cultivars from the present study . in turkey ,
the fig cultivar calimyrna  sarilop  is used and propagated extensively by cuttings and  calimyrna  is the most popular and best cultivar in the world because it dries well . nevertheless , rooting ratio % , length of nursery plant , and diameter of nursery plant reported lower values than those of tunisian cultivars studied .
the iranian cultivar  sabz  represents the large majority of fig trees present in estahban area .
obtained values on root emergence percentage , number of emergence buds , length of nursery plant , and number of leaves / nursery plant variables are similar to our results .
 brown turkey ,   dauphine ,  and  lisa  cultivars from thailand showed variables values of nursery fig plants comparable with those of this work . however , root emergence percentage revealed lower values ( 12.5039.29% ) than that found in the present survey ( 1583.33% ) , whereas three cultivars showed higher values for the number of emerged buds and number of roots / nursery plant .
moreover , the high variation was recorded among the % roots emergences and the other morphological traits within the 5 cultivars (  bayoudhi ,  
jemaoui ,   ragoubi ,   zidi ,  and  bouharrag  ) and between the 6 different types of cuttings ( age , length , and diameters ) of the cultivar  bither  .
these variations were influenced by ability of cultivar for rooting and characteristics of cuttings ( length , diameter , and age ) .
furthermore , practices of farming ( soil preparation , irrigation , harrowing , etc . ) and climate conditions were cited to have an effect on the quality of fig plants in the nursery [ 13 , 18 ] .
several factors seem to be involved in the improvement of fig hardwood cutting like the use of rooting hormonal treatment   and the use of plastic tunnels in fig propagation .
the present research showed that the hardwood cuttings of local cultivars of figs can be used to propagate material in field conditions .
furthermore , it is possible to obtain vigorous young plants ( length , number of leaves , and cumulative growth ) from cuttings of cultivars  bouharrag 
( caprifig ) ,  bayoudhi  ( common fig ) ,  rogabi ,  and  zidi  ( smyrna fig ) .  bither 's  rooting ability of the 6 cutting types studied revealed that the cutting type of one - year old characterized by 60  cm of length and diameter of < 1.5  cm gave the best percentage of rooting emergence .
also , the best cumulative growth of plant was obtained with the cutting type ( 2 years old shoots , length ( 40  cm ) , and diameter ( < 1.5  cm ) ) .
the positive aspects of this experiment have demonstrated the suitability of the hardwood cuttings method for vegetative propagation , since the production of fig plants in nursery can be realized and seems to be cheap .
this work is supposed to be a preliminary positive contribution in the propagation of fig in nursery which can have practical application for fig horticulturists in the southeast of tunisia .
 this research was carried out in southeast of tunisia in 2009 and 2010 , in order to study the propagation of six ( ficus carica l. ) cultivars by using hardwood cuttings under the field conditions . 
 the effect of the cultivars and the type of buds , shoots age , shoots length , and shoots diameter were recorded . 
 ten cuttings per cultivar and/or cutting types with three replications were planted in rooting unit . 
 percentage of root emergence and six morphological parameters of young fig plants were measured . 
 results showed that the responses of cuttings as fig nursery plants presented a high variability among the five cultivars . 
 the most widely varied characters were % root emergence ( re ) and cumulative growth of young plant ( cg ) . the first one ranged from 10% to 90% , the second varied within 32 and 112  cm . concerning the   bither  cultivar , 6 cutting types with different age , length , and diameter 
 were evaluated . 
 results showed a great variation in % of root emergence ( 090% ) , length of nursery plant ( 377  cm ) , and number of roots / nursery plant ( 029 roots ) . 
 the present research showed that the hardwood cutting of local fig cultivars can be propagated under field conditions in southeast of tunisia . 
1. Introduction
2. Material and Methods
3. Results
4. Discussion and Conclusions