African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (1), pp. 025-030, 2 January 2006          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Can a general shoot proliferation and rooting medium be used for a number of carnation cultivars?

H. Salehi

Department of Horticultural Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. E-mail: hsalehi@shirazu.ac.ir.

Abbreviations: BA, N⁶–benzyladenine; IBA, indole-3-butyric acid; kinetin, 6-furfurylaminopurine; MS, Murashige and Skoog medium; NAA, a-naphthaleneacetic acid.

Accepted 2 December, 2005

This investigation was conducted to find the best shoot proliferation and rooting media for 13 virus-free cultivars of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) recently imported from The Netherlands to Iran. The best shoot proliferation media were Murashige and Skoog (MS) containing 3 mgL^-1 (13.95 mM) kinetin and 0.5 mgL^-1 (2.69 mM) NAA or 1 mgL^-1 (4.44 mM) BA and 1 mgL^-1 (5.37 mM) NAA. Average of shoot numbers produced in the establishment media was 2-3, which increased to 30 or higher with some cultivars in subsequent subcultures. For rooting, the in vitro shoots were cultured on the best MS rooting media which is discussed. Transferring to a mixture of sand, leaf-mold and vermiculite (1:1:1, v/v/v) successfully acclimatized the plantlets. It can be concluded that using a general medium for shoot proliferation of used carnation cultivars is possible, but for rooting it is impossible.

Key words: culture medium, Dianthus caryophyllus L., in vitro culture,  micropropagation.