Minor nutrients are critical for the improved growth of Corylus avellana shoot cultures

To the best of our knowledge, one or more authors of this paper were federal employees when contributing to this work. This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by Springer and can be found at: http://link.springer.com/journal/11240.Many hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) cultivars\ud fail to thrive in vitro on standard growth medium and the\ud reasons for poor growth are not well understood. Our initial\ud study of five C. avellana cultivars showed that changes in\ud the mineral nutrients of Driver and Kuniyuki walnut\ud (DKW) medium, including doubling the minor nutrients,\ud produced improved growth and shoot quality. The objectives\ud of this study were to determine the effects of the\ud individual minor mineral nutrients from DKW medium and\ud if added nickel was required for optimal growth. Five\ud factors were tested at 0.5 x to 4 x DKW medium concentrations,\ud [H₃BO₃, CuSO₄•5H₂O, MnSO₄•H₂O, Na₂-MoO₄•2H₂O and Zn(NO₃)₂•6H₂O], in a response surface\ud design with 39 treatment combinations. Ni was not present\ud in the DKW medium formulation so NiSO₄•6H₂O was\ud varied from 0 to 6 μM. There were many significant\ud interactions among the minor nutrients. Higher concentrations\ud (4x) of B, Mo, and Zn increased overall shoot\ud quality, length, and multiplication. Increased Mo improved\ud some responses for each cultivar, and it interacted significantly\ud with Cu and Zn. The addition of Ni greatly\ud improved the shoot quality and length of ‘Sacajawea.’ Ni\ud interactions were significant for the other cultivars as well,\ud and altered the requirements for the other minor nutrients,\ud but did not necessarily improve the overall shoot response.\ud Improved growth and shoot quality for most cultivars\ud required increased amounts of B, Mo, and Zn and less Mn\ud and Cu. ‘Sacajawea’ required increased B, Cu, Zn, and Ni.\ud All of the cultivars required minor nutrient formulations\ud that differed greatly from DKW medium or other published\ud minor nutrient formulations