Objective To identify the influence of IAA and NAA on the rooting and shooting ability of Dalbergia odorifera, and provide theoretical and technical support for the rapid propagation and cultivation of D. odorifera.

Method Semi-lignified branches from 2-year-old D. odorifera seedlings were collected as the propagation materials. An orthogonal experiment was designed according to the concentrations of IAA and NAA and the soaking time. The effects of 16 treatments on rooting and shooting parameters of D. odorifera were investigated 80 days after cutting, and the subordinate function values method and principal component analysis were applied to comprehensively evaluate the rooting effects.

Result The concentrations of IAA and NAA, the soaking time, the interaction between IAA and NAA concentration, and the interactions between IAA concentration and soaking time showed great impacts on rooting percentage, and statistical differences were also observed in terms of length of roots, amount of roots, surface and volume of root system. Under certain concentration range, the rooting percentage increased as the concentration of IAA increased, while decreased as the concentration of NAA increased. The principal component analysis and subordinate function values were used to comprehensively evaluated the cutting propagation performance. It is showed that the corresponding rooting percentages of the top 4 treatments were 96.10%, 97.66%, 96.10% and 96.88%, respectively.

Conclusion Considering the rooting percentage, root and shoot development synthetically, it is suggested to apply 500 mg·L⁻¹ IAA + 750 mg·L⁻¹ NAA + 1-minute soaking or 750 mg·L⁻¹ IAA + 750 mg·L⁻¹ NAA + 10-second soaking or 250 mg·L⁻¹ IAA + 1-minute soaking or 500 mg·L⁻¹ IAA + 500 mg·L⁻¹ NAA + 10-second soaking in production practice to carry out cutting propagation of D. odorifera.