The establishment of asparagus clones out of tissue culture

摘要

Clonal lines of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), now available commercially, are expected to be more uniform and provide higher yields and quality than clonal hybrids and open pollinated varieties. A nutritional study on asparagus clones showed that a growth rate maximum was not attained when the plants were fed daily with a 100 mg/litre N, 34 mg/litre P and 100 mg/litre K nutrient feed. Clones were grown for 4 weeks at 14, 21 and 28℃ in growth cabinets. At 14℃ the clones did not grow but growth increased over the temperature range to 28℃. As temperature increased, so did partitioning of dry matter to the shoots. In an establishment trial in the field, planting seedlings and clones through black polythene mulch increased plant dry weight at the end of the growing season. The seedlings partitioned 40% of their dry matter to the shoots, whereas the clones partitioned 26%. After transfer out of tissue culture, the growth of asparagus clones did not compare well with that of seedlings. Possiblereasons for this are discussed.