Evaluation of growing media for the in vitro establishment, multiplication and rooting of blackberry (rubus glaucus benth.)

Abstract

In Colombia, Andean blackberry (Rubus glaucus Benth.) is considered as one of the fruit crops with the greatest agricultural potential. However, it does not have quality assurance schemes for the propagation and production of planting material. To solve this problem, tools such as in vitro propagation have been used. However, the effect of some factors such as culture medium is still unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate different culture media for the in vitro establishment, multiplication, and rooting of blackberry in order to develop a protocol for the production of planting material (genetic and sanitary quality). For this, eight of the main basal culture media supplemented with two concentrations of growth regulators were evaluated. The experiment was established in a completely randomized design with 16 treatments and three replicates of 10 experimental units per stage. For the establishment, the best culture medium was Murashige and Skoog (MS) in combination with 2 mg L-1 of gibberellic acid. For multiplication, the best results were observed in the MS medium supplemented with 0.75 mg L-1 of benzylaminopurine, while the MS medium in combination with 1 mg L-1 of indole butyric acid recorded the highest values for rooting.