Abstract

Micro-propagation of strawberry can produce virus-free plants with intensive number of runners under suitable explant source (i.e. meristem portion and nodal segment) and best basal media composition. Based on this, an experiment was conducted during 2017-18 at Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, Punjab, India to develop and standardize the protocol for successful in-vitro propagation of Strawberry cv. Hadar. The rooting capacity of the regenerated plants was also studied in this experiment. Nodes and meristems were used as explant and were cultured on MS growth media supplemented with various combinations of cytokinins and auxins. By contrast, the meristem explant lead to highest percent regeneration, maximum shoot length and number of leaves. Highest percent regeneration on 21st day were observed in direct establishment media (DEM1) with meristem being used as an explant (92.25%), which was at par with DEM3 with nodal and DEM2 with nodal. Also, the maximum shoot length (2.67cm) and number of leaves (9.15) were observed under DEM1 with meristem. Study on rooting capacity revealed that IBA (1.5) + NAA (1.5) proved to be superior with maximum rooting percentage (80%) in minimum number of days (6). The present investigation reports that response of meristem explant found to be the best for explant establishment on basal media composition supplemented with BA (2 mg) for regeneration of strawberry cv. Hadar.