Composition of the culture medium and incubation for rooting shoots of Agave

Abstract

In Oaxaca the Agave Americana var. oaxacensis is found wild and small plantations. The objective of the study was to evaluate the concentration of indole butyric acid (IBA) and the inorganic salts in the culture medium, thus as the incubation temperature, its effect on the rooting of Agave shoots and plant characteristics. The worked was conducted in the laboratory of plant tissue culture and in a greenhouse from the Technological Institute of Oaxaca Valley in 2011-2012. Stem tissues cultured in vitro formed clusters of 4 to 10 adventitious shoots. Shoots with 4-4.5 cm were separated individually and to induce rooted, were transferred to containers of 145 cm3 with 20 mL of different culture medium. The total sprouts on each culture medium were separated into two groups for incubation during 60 days under different conditions of laboratory or greenhouse. All sprouts formed adventitious roots even in culture mediums without auxin but the shoots in culture medium with 0.5 or 1 mg L-1 IBA formed more roots and the plants were larger. The culture medium containing inorganic salts to 66%, gave better condition, than the salts to 100%, for shoots producing more roots. The plants obtained in vitro cultures incubated in greenhouse and laboratory had on average 7.1 and 6.5 leaves, 7 and 6.5 mm in stem diameter, 170 and 150 mg of total dry weight, respectively.