DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFICIENT PROTOCOL FOR TISSUE CULTURE OF SUGARCANE

Availability of disease-free and genetically homogeneous planting material is essential for achieving a high yield in sugarcane cultivation. Tissue culture is one of the best techniques to produce disease-free, true-to-type, and vigorous plants of sugarcane which can be used as seed cane. This study aimed to develop an efficient protocol for the production of tissue-cultured plantlets of sugarcane, to decide suitable potting mix for hardening of these plantlets in the greenhouse, and to develop agronomy for growing them in the field for a three-tier system of sugarcane seed production. During this study, explants (meristems) from sugarcane variety ‘Co 86032’ were used from sugarcane seed nursery. These meristems were placed on Moorashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different combinations of cytokines and auxin. We observed multiple shoots on MS medium supplemented with BAP 0.2 mg/l and Kinetin 0.1 mg/l. Best rooting was observed on MS media supplemented with IAA 1 mg/l and NAA 1 mg/l. Soil mixture [Soil + Vermiculite + Sand in 4:1:1 proportion (by volume)] + Vermicompost @ 25% by volume of medium + NPK is best suited for hardening tissue-cultured plants in the greenhouse. The most appropriate method for planting tissue-cultured plantlets in the field was recognized as 2 feet distance between 2 plants and 3 feet distance between 2 rows. Setts obtained from micro-propagated plants (M) gave the highest yield as compared to setts from conventional sugarcane cultivation. Setts obtained from tissue-cultured plants planted at 15 cm spacing, gave a higher yield than those of other spacing. The protocol developed in this study shows potential for the development of tissue-cultured sugarcane plantlets and this will help to supply healthy seed cane to the sugarcane farmers, which is the main prerequisite for improving the productivity of the sugarcane crop.