Technical know-how of in vitro plant propagation and andex vitro plant hardening of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Abstract

Date palm is considered as a symbol of life in desert due to its characteristics as can tolerate extremes of temperature (lower up to zero and high up to 50 0C), water stress and soil saline conditions of arid regions.Traditionally, it is multiplied by seeds and off-shoots (suckers). Both seed propagation and off-shoots production of plants have one or other limitations. Seed propagation has several demerits such as poor and delayed germination, long juvenile phase (7-8 years), variable plant population, uncertainty of sex (male or female plant) before flowering being a dioecious species, generally yielded late maturing variable quality fruits than off-shoot produced plants, more chance of losing desired characteristics of parent plant being a heterozygous nature, no true to type plant production is possible, and ultimately seedling population may differ in fruit quality, harvesting period and production potential which pose difficulty in disposal and marketing process etc.Therefore, tissue culture has become a preferred alternative over conventional propagation for mass multiplication of date palm to satisfy the grower’s demand. To overcome the propagation problems and mass multiplication of elite genotype in vitro micropropagation is the successful technique which provides rapid production of genetically uniform, true-to-type, good quality and disease free planting materials of date palm round the year.