Interaction Effects of 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and Indole-3-Butyric Acid (IBA) on Ex Vitro Propagation of Sugarcane

Abstract

Ex vitro propagation of micropropagated sugarcane plantlets of three selected sugarcane genotypes was carried out with the objective of evaluating their propagation responses to the interaction effects of BAP and IBA. Accordingly, six levels of IBA (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mg L-1) and eight levels of BAP (0.0, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0 and 2.25 mg L-1) with three sugarcane genotypes, each replicated three times were tested. The treatments were arranged in a factorial completely randomized design. Data on the number of tillers per shoot, average shoot length (cm) and number of active leaves per shoot were collected twice every 30th day after 30 days of treatment application. Analysis of variance revealed that the interaction effects of BAP, IBA and the sugarcane genotypes was very highly significant (P<0.0001) on the number of tillers per shoot, average shoot length and number of active leaves per shoot. The optimum number of tillers per shoot (5.67), average shoot length (40.77 cm) and number of active leaves per shoot (6.97) were obtained at 0.1 mg/l IBA+0.75 mg/l BAP in C132-81. In C86-56, the optimum number of tillers per shoot (4.50) was obtained at 0.1 mg/l IBA+1.5 mg/l BAP while the maximum average shoot length (48.33 cm) and maximum number of active leaves per shoot (7.67) were obtained at 0.2 mg/l IBA+0.75 mg/l BAP. In SP70-1284, the optimum number of tillers per shoot (6.43) was obtained at 0.3 mg/l+1 mg/l BAP with 16.05 cm average shoot length and 4.87 active leaves per shoot. Thus, it can be deduced that production of an average of 5.5 plantlets per shoot within a month can be possible.