EFFECT OF INOCULATION DENSITY ON POTATO MICROPROPAGATION

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the effect of inoculation density on potato micropropagation
var. Desiree and investigate the nutrients competition among potato micro plants. The different growth factors
were examined, i.e., shoot length, numbers of roots and numbers of nodes of each microplant. A number of 1-5
treatments of micro plants was examined with 10 repetitions of each treatment. In this experiment 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
nodal cuttings were transferred in each test tube. The morphology of the plantlets during this experiment was
observed, and remained same whether single inoculated plantlets or five nodal cuttings were inserted in a test
tube. Post two weeks of culture certain numbers of nodes/microplant, roots/micro plant and shoot length were
obtained from each culture tube. The numbers of nodes and roots were more in T5 as compared to other
treatments. During this experiment it had been observed that the inoculation density did not affect the normal
growth of the plantlets. So the inoculation density effect did not affect (i.e., p=0.05) the plantlets. Four week post
explant culture the plantlets showed maximum growth under artificial condition of growth chamber. So, this
experiment showed that the inoculation density has no significant effect (i.e., p=0.05) on potato microplants.