Production of quality planting material of Chandler strawberry by in vitro regeneration

Abstract

In order to explore the in vitro regeneration potential of strawberry, experiments were conducted on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of cytokinins and auxins alone and in combination for establishment of aseptic cultures, shoot regeneration and multiplication, rooting and acclimatization of plantlets. Two type of explants viz., runner tip and nodal segment were used for the investigation. Establishment of aseptic cultures is a pre requisite for successful culture. Among several sterilizing agents ethanol (70%) for 30 sec followed by HgCl2 (0.1%) for 2 min was found to be the best treatment resulting in least contamination and maximum survival (53.3 ± 1.08 percent in runner tip and 53.1 ± 1.08 percent in nodal segments). Phenol exudation was the major problem during establishment which caused death of most of the explants. In our experiment, explants were inoculated in MS medium supplemented with ascorbic acid 200 mg per liter to control browning. Addition of BAP alone or in combination with IAA was found essential during shoot proliferation and multiplication. Among all the treatments, 3.0 mg/L BAP + 0.5 mg/L IAA was found most effective with regard to minimum number of days (16.1 ± 0.29) required for shoot induction and maximum number of shoots (12.8 ± 0.52). Half strength MS media with 1.5 mg/L IAA was found superior over other concentrations of IAA, IBA and NAA for various rooting parameters. During acclimatization, maximum percentage survival (45.2) was recorded when coco peat alone was used as primary hardening after 20 days and combination of coco peat with FYM (1: 1 v/v) recorded maximum percent survival (65.0) after 30 days in secondary hardening.