Effects of Coconut Water on Micropropagation of Caladium Bicolour Cv ’Thai Beauty’

Caladium bicolour (Aiton) Vent. is an attractive commercial ornamental plant in the horticulture industry which is popular as potted plants for homescaping and as garden plants for landscaping. Propagation of this attractive plant through micropropagation has more benefits than conventional propagation. The current study describes an in vitro multiplication of Caladium bicolour cv ‘Thai Beauty’ with coconut water as a supplement. Shoots derived from leaf explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 mg/L (6- Benzylaminopurine) with and without 120 mL/L of coconut water. The results showed that coconut water (CW) with 0.5 and 1.5 mg/L BAP in the medium increased caladium shoot multiplication having an average of 6.67 and 7.75 shoots /shoot, respectively, with a large number of high-quality shoots. Coconut water alone in the medium also produced average of 3.42 shoots/ shoot. Hence, the current protocol provides a direct, cost-effective mass propagation method for large-scale commercial cultivation of caladium. Keywords: Caladium; Micropropagation; Coconut water; 6-benzylaminopurine