A large group of horticulture species are propagated vegetatively through shoot-tip cuttings harvested from stock plants and planted to form adventitious roots. Adventitious root development (ARD) leads to establishing a carbohydrate sink in the region of root regeneration, which is highly dependent on energy and carbon skeletons. We hypothesized that enhancing the source-to-sink relationship during ARD can lead to an efficient carbon allocation to growth, resulting in a well-rooted cutting. Thus, the research aimed to determine if the application time of a Cytokinin B-Mo-based product during the ARD of unrooted cuttings would impact the source-to-sink relationship and, hence, affect plug growth and quality. The product was applied at four application times plus a negative control as follows: T1: plants without product (control), T2: sticking stage (starting 24 h after the sticking); T3: callus formation stage; T4: root development stage; and T5: toning stage. The experiment was a complete randomized design with five treatments and 60 repetitions for treatment (n=60) in two experimental runs (n=120). The root and shoot length, the number of leaves, the leaf chlorophyll content, the root and shoot dry matter, and the root-to-shoot ratio were measured. Results indicate that applying the product at T2 in ARD's dedifferentiation and induction phase leads to the shortest root and shoot length, the lowest dry matter accumulation, and some phytotoxicity effects. For T3 in ARD's initiation phase, the application results in greater root, total dry matter, and total soluble sugar contents than the control. For T4 in ARD's expression phase, the application results in greater growth, total dry matter, and sucrose and starch contents than control and other treatments. Applying the product in T5 when the roots had grown and reached all the edges of the growing media did not have any benefit compared to the control. Our results suggest that the exogenous application of a product to strengthen the source-to-sink relationship during adventitious root development can potentially enhance the non-structural carbohydrate contents when applied at the root formation phase (T4), which correlates positively with the increase in the length and dry matter of the roots, generating a well-toned rooted cutting.
