INTRODUCTION
In rubber tree cultivation, the yield of field depends on the quality of trees. Those trees must have high yield potentialities and be as homogenous as possible (Combe and Du Plessix, 1971). The first rubber exploitations were set up in Southeast Asia from 1890 to 1930, often using seed of uncontrolled origin. The heterogeneity of this planting material and the difficulty of obtaining large quantities of seed of known origin inspired a searching of vegetative propagating elite trees. The impossibility of obtaining cuttings from selected mature trees led to the widespread of grafting practice onto seedlings. Therefore it is budding onto rootstocks obtained from non-selected seed and genetically heterogeneous, that is still used today to set up clonal farms. This “semi-vegetative” propagation technique had some drawbacks, which warranted continuous research to develop a “complete vegetative” propagation method,