Low Cost Media forIn vitromultiplication and Development of Protocorm Like Bodies (PLBs) of Eulophia graminea orchid

Eulophia graminea is a saprophytic orchid and easily found on a high salinity environment along the coast line. Astudy aimed to explore low cost media compositionsenriched withorganic compounds for in vitromultiplication and development of PLBs ofE. graminea. This study consisted of two stages. The first stage was to determine the best basic media for in vitroPLBsmultiplication by experimenting NPK 20-20-20, Murashige and Skoog, Knudson C, and Vacint and Went arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications. The second stage wasto compare the development of PLBs of E. graminae using NPK 20-20-20 as the basic media, supplement with 12 organiccompounds, namely : 50 g L-1banana, 100 g L-1banana, 150 g L-1banana, 200 g L-1banana, 50 g L-1potato, 100 g L-1potato, 150 g L-1potato, 200 g L-1potato, 50 ml L-1 coconut water, 100 ml L-1 coconut water, 150 ml L-1 coconut water, and 200 ml L-1 coconut water. The results showed that the highest multiplication of PLBs E. graminea orchid was produced on the NPK 20-20-20 media (29.2 PLBs per explant), similar to those onMS media (25.2 PLBs per explants), but five times better than those on Knudson C (5.8 PLBs per explant) and six times better than those on Vacint and Went (4.8 PLBs per explant). NPK 20-20-20 media supplemented with 100-150 ml L-1 coconut waterhadalso developed the highest plantlets from the PLBs (16.4 plantlets per explant). Being 20 times cheaper than MS media, thismedia was the most cost effective media for micropropagating Eulophia graminea