Effect of Sugars on Rooting of Shoots of Japanese Persimmon Propagated in vitro

Abstract

The effect of different concentrations of sucrose, glucose and fructose on in vitro rooting of shoots of Japanese persimmon that had been induced from selected rootstocks was studied. When the shoots of Japanese persimmon strain “No.3” were cultured on autoclaved half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium (MS medium) containing 0.2M fructose, roots were induced in 94% of the shoots after 45 days of culture whereas only 30% of rooting was obtained on media containing the same concentration of sucrose or glucose. However, filter-sterilized fructose had no stimulative effect on rooting. The autoclaved medium containing 0.2M fructose showed consistently high percentages of rooting (80%<) of the shoots for 9 rootstock strains tested, whereas only 3 strains responded to the culture on medium containing 0.1M sucrose following 250mg/l IBA pretreatment.