SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Research Journal - Volume 4 - 1999 University of Mauritius, Rduit, Mauritius.

AN INVESTIGATION ON LOW COST, LOCALLYAVAILABLE SUBSTRATES POTENTIALLY SUITABLE FOR USE IN THE HARDENING OF TISSUE-CULTURED PLANTLETS.
By D. PUCHOOA*, B. PONNUSAWMY and Y.F. WAN CHOW WAH Department of Agricultural & Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius, Rduit, Mauritius (Received May 1999 . Accepted July 1999)

ABSTRACT Four locally available low cost materials, bagasse, sawdust, sand and rocksand were tested for their physical, physico-chemical and chemical properties in order to evaluate their potential utilization as substrates or components of substrates for the hardening of tissue-cultured plantlets. Peat was added to these four materials in four different ratios in order to enhance their qualities and they were retested for their physical and chemical characteristics. A fresh mixture of vermiculite, peat and light expanded clay (1:1:1v/v) was used as the reference substrate. Nicotiana tabacum plantlets were the tissue-cultured plantlets used in hardening throughout this work. Significant differences (p<0.05, p<0.01) were observed after three weeks between the plantlets grown in the M1 reference substrate and the other substrates, in terms of percentage survival and plant height. However, plantlets grown on peat/bagasse mixture produced more leaves than plantlets grown on M1. Among the locally available materials tested, bagasse, mixed with peat in a 1:1 ratio (v/v) gave the most satisfactory results. Keywords : Tissue culture, acclimatization, bagasse, sand, rocksand, peat.