Influence of in vitro propagation on the economically important traits of strawberry cv. Marmolada

Abstract

In vitro propagation of strawberries is a promising alternative to traditional propagation, since it provides better sanitary status of plants. The possibility of somaclonal variation presents one of the drawbacks of this method, but this phenomena can be minimised by the choice of optimal tissue culture procedure. To evaluate the influence of in vitro growing on economically important traits of strawberry cv. Marmolada, rooted plants were produced in vitro from a long term and from a newly established culture. These plants were used as mother plants for short multiplication in the field.Vegetative and generative traits of their runner plants were compared with conventionally produced cold storage plants and plants derived directly from tissue culture. Statistically significant differences were observed among different plant types in the number of runners per plant,number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per plant and yield per plant. The most pronounced differences were observed in the number of fruits per plant and in the yield per plant. Plants obtained directly from tissue culture were almost twice as productive as conventionally produced cold storage plants. Conventionally produced cold storage plants had statistically significantly higher yields and fruit number per plant than runner plants derived from micropropagated mother plants. High yields of plants obtained directly from in vitro were mainly the results oftheir significantly prolonged ripening.