MICROPROPAGATION OF SOME WATERMELON CULTIVARS BY USING TISSUE CULTURE TECHNIQUE

Abstract

This work was conducted at Laboratory of Tissue Culture, Hort. Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt, during the period from 2017 to 2018 to develop a protocol for micropropagation of two watermelon cultivars (Star and Romero) by using lateral buds as explant. Nodes of the two cultivars cultured on MS media containing different concentrations of benzyle adenine (BA) through multiplication stage. The highest shoot length was recorded on MS media containing 0.5 mg BA/l for Romero cultivar, whereas lateral buds of Star cultivar which cultured on MS media containing 1.5 and 4 mg BA/l showed the best No. of shoots and leaves/plantlet, respectively. The best results for roots formation percentage of Romero plantlets were MS media containing Indole bytric acid (IBA) at 1 or 1.5 mg/l followed by Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 0.5 or 1 mg/l through rooting stage.