In vitro culture of mandarin orange (Citrus reticulate (L.) Blanco) via organogenesis

In vitro culture of mandarin orange (Citrus reticulate) was carried out. Seeds without seed coats cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium without plant growth regulator, provided the highest percentage of germination (75%), shoot number (1.6) and shoot length (1.3 cm). Seed-derived shoots were cultured on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of 6-benzyladenine (BA) at 1.5 and 3.0 mg L^‑1 alone or with 500 mg L^‑1 malt extract for multiple shoot induction. It was found that BA alone gave a greater number of shoots (3.6 and 4.0, respectively) than BA with malt extract (2.8 and 3.8, respectively). However, malt extract provided higher shoot length (1.9 cm) than BA alone (1.4-1.7 cm). For rooting, 0.7 roots, 3.0 cm root length with 67% rooting or 0.7 roots, 1.4 cm root length with 73% rooting were obtained from a half strength of MS containing 1.0 mg L^‑1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or 1.0 mg L^‑1 IBA in combination with 1.0 mg L^‑1 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), respectively.