In vitro propagation of olive cultivars ‘Frontio’, ‘Earlik’, ‘Gemlik’

Olive (Olea europaea L.) plants have been originated from the Mediterranean sea and has been grown since very old times. Olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars have been grown and multiplied by hardwood cuttings in conventional method. Such techniques are time taking and are labor consuming. This traditional technique is less efficient and not that effective. An efficient and reproducible protocol for plantlet regeneration from nodal segments of olive cultivars LSQUOFrontioRSQUO, LSQUOEarlikRSQUO and LSQUOGemlikRSQUO has been developed in recent years. An effect of cultivar was clearly observed with LSQUOFrontioRSQUO being more readily multiplied through in vitro culture. All cultivars showed their best response with ZR (zeatin riboside), particularly when time elapsed between inoculation of explant and lag period (bud break for 50% of the explant, the rate of the multiplication and primary shoot growth was kept under consideration). Application of BA (6-benzyladenine) alone or in combination with NAA (alpha naphthalene acetic acid) raised the axillary buds number and internodes without causing any improvement in their growth. Induction of the root with IBA (indole-3-butyric acid) in the dark conditions by utilizing a two-phase scheme developed the best rooting rate in shoots produced in vitro, and this is same for all the three cultivars.