Methods of Inducing the Polyploid Tea Plant by Colchicine Treatment of the Axillary Bud

Abstract

The growing point of the young and yellow-white colored axillary bud which was sprouted in the dark was covered with a small cotton ball and wetted with 0.2% colchicine solution.
This colchicine treatment also was made in the dark.
A wholly tetraploid shoot and some chromosomal chirneric ones with diploid and tetraploid cells were obtained from the above treatment.
Some wholly tetraploid shoots grew out of the new axillary buds sprouted by the cutting-back technique applied to the chirneric shoots.
Up to the present, wholly tetraploid shoots have been obtained in the following varieties, "Benihomare", "Hatsumomiji", "Benitachi-wase", "Yabukita" and "Ai 170."
A brief discussion was made as to the difficulty in the artificial induction of the tetraploid tea plant.