Micropropagation of guava (Psidium guajava L.)

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) plant is widely adopted and can tolerate frost, drought and salinity conditions. In the present study, a rapid, simple and efficient protocol for in vitro propagation of guava (P. guajava L.) from nodal segments of adult trees grown in the field was established. Explants collected in Autumn and cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 6-benzyl adenine (BA) at 8.9 μM, plus indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at 0.98 μM showed the best response in the in vitro establishment (91.7% sprouting percentage and shoot length of 1.75 cm). In addition, 100 mg/l ascorbic acid and 150 mg/l citric acid as antioxidants and Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at 100 mg/l and activated charcoal (AC) at 2 g/l as absorbents were added to the establishment medium to reduce phenolic compounds. Regarding average number and length of shoots per explant, BA was more effective than kinetin (kin). Maximum rooting percentage (66.7%) occurred on solid halfstrength MS medium containing indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) at 9.8 μM. Fifty percent (50%) rooted plantlets were successfully acclimatized in the greenhouse in soil mixture of sand, grand soil and peat moss at equal volumes, and subsequently established outside the greenhouse.