The effect of cultivar and explants on peach micropropagation

Peach cultivar micropropagation is not a common practice, as is with the most of the peach rootstocks which are nowadays produced in vitro. The aim of the present study was to test the ability of some Romanian peach cultivars (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) to be propagated in vitro and then to be cultivated on their own roots. Ten peach cultivars were included in the experiment: three dwarf cultivars (‘Valerica’, ‘Cecilia’, ‘Dan’) a standard control – ‘Redhaven’ and six commercial cultivars (‘Raluca’, ‘Monica’, ‘Florin’, ‘Filip’, ‘Mimi’ and ‘Catherine sel. 1’). Two explants: shoot-tips and nodes were taken at 0.5-1 cm length, sterilized with sodium hypochlorite (10%) for 15-20 min and then cultivated on Murashige & Skoog media with different growth hormones balance. The growth chamber parameters were maintained at 22°C, 2000-2500 lx and 80-85% relative humidity. The number of shoots formed, shoots length, number of leaves/shoots were analyzed. The results showed that the data were influenced by the cultivars in response to tissue culture technique with differences between the dwarf cultivars and the standard ones. Explant type also influenced the peach in vitro culture performance.