The present investigation aimed at the development of a new technique for propagation of tulip bulb by means of tissue culture in vitro. Excised scales of the bulbs derived from eight commercial varieties; i. e., ‘Apeldoorn’, ‘César Frank’, ‘Cramoisi Brilliant’, ‘Defiance’, ‘Fuga’, ‘Monsieur S. Mottet’, ‘Red Emperor’, ‘William Pitt’and three botanical species, namely, Tulipa hageri, T. praestans and T. tubergeniana‘Emir’which were cultured on synthetic media for the purpose of determining the most favorable conditions for their organ formation.
1) Callus formation of cultured scales obtained from‘Apeldoorn’, ‘Red Emperor’, ‘Defiance’and T. praestans was spontaneously induced on the modified Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) or 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2•4-D) at the appropriate concentration, whereas the scales of‘William Pitt’and‘Cramoisi Brilliant’failed to develop the callus in any case.
2) With regard to the formation of shoot-like protuberances on the cultured scales, the scale tissue of‘Apeldoorn’cultured on the medium containing either NAA 5mg/l plus kinetin 1mg/l or 2•4-D 1mg/l plus kinetin 1mg/l was capable of producing the shoot like protuberances. In the case of T. hageri, the protuberances were formed on a medium with NAA 2, 10 and 25mg/l to each of which was added 1mg/l kinetin.
3) The scales of‘Apeldoorn’, ‘William Pitt’and‘Fuga’formed adventitious roots 20 to 30 weeks after inoculation, when they were cultured on a medium supplemented with NAA or a suitable combination of NAA and kinetin.