DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATIC PROPAGATION SYSTEM OF SEEDLING

An automatic system for the production of plant seedling in vitro has been developed, taking up the propagation of miniature rose seedling with flower bud in vitro as a model target. The system has automatic functions that are sterilization of agar medium, supply of the medium into tubes, solidification of it, cutting of seedlings into seed tips and settling of the tips on the agar medium. A mechanical means for the determination of the cutting position is adopted in our system, and no image sensor is used in order to reduce machinery cost. Our automatic system can produce 150 sets of a seed tip in glass tube in one hour.