Plant regeneration from blackberry lateral bud culture under a set of hormone, silicic acid, sucrose and activated charcoal

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect plant growth regulator, silicic acid, sucrose and activated charcoal used in micro propagation of thornless Blackberry cv. Merton explants. Propagules of cv. Merton were cultivated on a 1/2 Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. The single buds were cultured in 1/2 MS containing 0.1% activated charcoal and new shoot containing buds were formed 3 weeks after culture. New buds were cultured in MS containing BA, Kin and IBA at concentrations of 0.2, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 mgL-1 for shoot regeneration. New shoot after 6 weeks regenerated and the best medium for shoot regeneration was MS medium contains 1.5 mg/l BA and 0.1 mg/l IBA. Shoots were cultured in 1/2 MS containing 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 mgL-1 NAA and IBA for root formation. After determining the optimal concentrations of IBA and NAA, activated charcoal in concentrations of 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2%, silicic acid in concentrations of 0, 1, 5, 10, 20 mgL-1, sucrose in concentrations of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5% were added to the culture medium to improve rooting. Sucrose in 4% increased the root length, root weight and chlorophyll content. The addition of activated charcoal in the MS medium resulted in increased shoot and root length. In thornless blackberry cultures, Silicic acid decreased the shoot number but until 5 mg/l increased the shoot length. Silicic acid increased the root length in 1 mg/l and increased the root weight in 5 mg/l rather than control respectively.