Studies on Establishment of Aseptic Culture in Pomegranate cv. Bhagwa

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an economically important fruit crop of arid and semiarid regions of the world. Micropropagation of pomegranate, have provided many advantages over the conventional methods of vegetative propagation. It ensures true to type of plants, uniform quality and rapid mass production of disease free planting materials with seasonal independency. The present study was carried out with the objective to standardize efficient and reproducible protocol for establishment of aseptic culture in pomegranate “Bhagwa”. Different explants, duration of mercuric chloride treatment and antioxidants were tried for culture initiation. Among the various explants, maximum aseptic culture (55.00%) establishment was obtained with double nodal explants containing third + fourth nodes. The effective surface sterilization with lowest contamination (15%) was achieved with HgCl2 (0.10%) for 3 minute. Lesser intensity of browning and higher culture establishment (54%) was observed with 2000 mg/l activated charcoal.