In vitro propagation of Ficus carica L. var. Bursa Si·yahi through meristem culture

Bursa Siyahi is a well-adapted fig cultivar under Qukurova conditions. However, almost all trees are infected with the fig mosaic virus. In vitro propagation of this cultivar through meristem culture was carried out in order to obtain virus-free plant propagation. The meristems were isolated during the growing seasons and cultured on Linsmair and Skoog (1965) medium, supplemented with 0.5 mg/1 Benzyladenine (BA), 0.1 mg/1 Indole Butyric Acid (IBA), 0.1 mg/1 Gibberellic Acid (GA3) + 89 mg/1 Phloroglucinol (PG) and + 2 g/1 active charcoal (AC). Then, growing shoots were transferred to a shoot proliferation medium including 89 mg/1 PG, 0.5 and 1.0 mg/1 BAP. In order to induce rooting, propagated shoots were subcultured onto a rooting medium with 0, 1 and 2 mg/1 IBA. In the meristem phase, survival and shoot formation rate of meristems was investigated, in the proliferation phase, the rate of proliferation and the effect of subculture number on the proliferation rate and in the rooting phase, the rate of rooted explants and the number of roots per explant. At the end of the meristem phase, the meristems which were isolated from shoot tips taken in spring or autumn times and cultured on a medium with phloroglucinol or active charcoal showed the highest shoot formation rate (50.1 %). The propagation rate was found to be higher (4.43 plantlet/plant) in the medium containing 1.0 mg/1 BAP than 0.5 mg/1 BAP (3.52). At the end of the rooting experiments, differences between the auxin treatments were not found to be statistically significant; however, the highest rooting (75.0 %) was obtained in medium without auxin. This was followed by 1 mg/1 and 2 mg/1 IBA containing media having 68.33 and 58.33 % rooting, respectively