Abstract:
Floriculture has been identified as one of the most profitable agro- enterprises. Gerbera (Gerbera
jamesonii var. Kilimanjaro)is one of the most important profitable cut flowers, grown in Sri Lanka
for export as well as for the local market. Export figures of Sri Lanka clearly shown that we are
not in line with the world trend though Gerbera have higher demand in the present floricultural
market. One of the major constrains in expanding Gerbera cultivation is limited supply of quality
planting material. Micro propagation techniques can be successfully applied for mass propagation
of Gerbera. Therefore, the present study was undertaken for development of efficient and
commercially viable tissue culture procedure for callusing of Gerbera jamesonii var, Kilimanjaro.
The explants (Capitulum) were collected from mother plants maintained inside a polytunnel in
Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, which were treated with balanced fertilizer mixture
(20:20:20) once in fortnight . Detached explants were well cleaned using fungicidal solution and
running tap water, then sterilized with 25% Clorox and 70% alcohol solution and positioned on
the Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different organic additives; Coconut
water 100 mil'1, Banana pulp 50 gl'1, Tomato pulp 50 gl'1 and Carrot pulp 50 gl'1) with two levels
of Thidiazuron [TDZ] (0.5 mg/1,0.1 mg/1) and constant level of IAA (0.5 mg/1). Control
experiment was done without additives. Percentage of callusing and regeneration were recorded
weekly intervals. Results indicated thatexplants which were cultured on modified MS medium
supplemented with Carrot pulp as additive is the highest recorded callus formation and shoot
initiation( P<0.001).
