In Vitro Propagation of Garlic (Allium sativum L.)

Abstract

This study was carried out in the Tissue Culture Laboratory and the Experiment Field of the Dept. of Horticulture, Assiut Univ. Two garlic cultivars i.e., El-Balady (local cultivar) and the Chinese were used. Two media, MS and B5, were supplemented with 4%, 8%, 12% and 16% sucrose. The 8% sucrose gave best number of roots, root length and leaf length as compared to the other sucrose concentrations used in this study. Four percent or 16% sucrose gave the lowest values of these characters. The MS gave higher values in most of the studied characters than that of the B5. In another experiment three growth regulators i.e. IBA, BA and GA3 or used at 0, 5, 10, 20 ppm in two media, MS and B5 supplemented with 3% sucrose. All the studied growth regulators gave higher values than the control in respect of the all studied characters. The IBA was better than BA and GA3 in root formation, while GA3 was better than BA and IBA in leaf formation. It is found that 5 ppm of IBA formed the highest number of roots, root length and percentage of root formation. On the other hand, the 20 ppm of GA3 gave the highest number of leaves and leaf length. The garlic plantlets were successfully acclimatized in the laboratory giving 67.8% survival for the Balady cv. and about 62.6% for Chinese cv. The survival rate of these plantlets were 74.5% for the Balady cv. and 78.5% for the Chinese cv. on transfer to the open-field. No chromosomal aberrations was noticed.