A Low-cost Medium for Sweet Potato Micropropagation

Abstract

Tissue culture has not been optimised in sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) propagation due to high costs. With an aim of producing affordable disease-free seedlings, a low cost medium was developed and used to regenerate two sweet potato varieties (KEMB 36 and Tainurey). The conventional sources of MS nutrients were substituted with locally available fertilisers. Thirty grammes per litre table sugar was used as a source of carbon. MS medium supplemented with 30g -l table sugar and 3g -l of gelrite was used as the control. The number of leaves, nodes, roots and plant height for the two cultivars were determined and compared . The low cost medium was significantly (P<0.05) cheaper compared to the MS medium costing 94.4% less per litre. KEMB 36 had a regeneration index of 7 nodes per plantlet on the low cost medium, while Tainurey had 3 nodes per plantlet