Field evaluation of tissue cultured vis-a-vis vegetatively propagated plants of vanilla (Vanilla planifolia Andr.).

摘要

Results are presented of an experiment investigating the adaptability of tissue-cultured plants of vanilla (V. planifolia) under field conditions in Karnataka, India. The Indian Cardamom Research Institute (ICRI), Myladumpara, supplied vanilla plants of 3 accessions, MCV 1 (collected from Ambalavayal, Wynad district of Kerala), MCV 3 (collected from Kallar and Burliar, Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu) and MCV 4 (collected from Kalpetta, Wynad district of Kerala), which where propagated through axillary bud cultures at the Tissue Culture Laboratory in Kochi, and were planted (15-20 cm height) in the nursery at the ICRI, Sakaleshpur. The morphological characters, yield, capsule quality characters and vanillin content from the tissue-cultured plants were on par with the stem cuttings of the respective mother plants. To meet the huge demand and as an alternative approach, micropropagation techniques can be effectively utilized for providing adequate plantlets on a commercial basis within a short span of time. Since tissue-cultured vanilla plants are in no way inferior to vegetatively propagated plants, micropropagation technology can be adopted for propagation and for large scale field planting.