OPTIMIZING THE PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES FOR GARDENIA JASMINOIDES ELLIS

In Fujian China the harvest time for Gardenia jasminoides fruit is generally from October to November each year. The seeds should be timely placed in the shade area or kept in the refrigerator (4-5 degrees C), which could improve the seedling height increment, but could not improve the germination rate. 500 ppm 3-indolebutyric acid (IBA) was selected as the suitable plant growth regulator (PRG) and concentration for G. jasminoides cutting propagation by comparison of different PRG concentrations. G. jasminoides cuttings showed early flowering performance in seedling stage, and the fruiting would be advanced after afforestation. G. jasminoides explants were difficult to disinfect during explant initiation. The mother plants for taking explants should be pretreated with pesticides for reducing the contamination rate. Dark culture was needed and 5 mg/L Vitamin C (VC) was added into the medium to reduce the browning during the explant initiation culture. The medium that Murashige and Skoog basal medium (MS)+1.0 mg/L 6-benzyladenine (BA)+0.1 mg/L 1-naphthylacetic acid (NAA)+50 mg/L VC and 30 g/L sugar were appended in the explant initiation medium. The average multiplication rate of subcultural medium MS+0.5 mg/L BA+0.1 mg/L NAA+5 mg/L Vitamin B2 (VB2) +50 mg/L VC was 6.25 times, the average shoot height was 3.83cm, and the shoot base had less calli and the shoots grew well. The rooting medium 1/2 MS+ 0.25 mg/L IBA supplemented with 20 mg/L sugar, the rooting rate achieved 100%, the average root length reached 4.46 cm and the average root number per plant reached 7.92 cm. The tissue-cultured seedlings were moved to the glass greenhouse for hardening, then washed the culture medium and transplanted to a greenhouse by covering the plastic film to keep humidity. 30 days after careful control of pests and diseases, the survival rate was more than 98%.

Automated summary

The harvest time for Gardenia jasminoides fruit in Fujian China is generally from October to November. Placing the seeds in the shade or refrigerator can improve the seedling height increment but not the germination rate. By comparing different plant growth regulator concentrations, 500 ppm of 3-indolebutyric acid (IBA) was found to be suitable for G. jasminoides cutting propagation. The tissue-cultured seedlings showed early flowering performance and advanced fruiting after afforestation.