In vitro propagation of Pink pulp dragon fruit (Selenicereus costaricensis)

The pink pulp dragon fruit (Selenicereus costaricensis), also referred to as red dragon fruit or “Costa Rican pitahaya.” In addition to being a commercial fruit crop, it has gained popularity on a global scale as an ornamental plant and is thereby also called the “night-blooming cactus”. However, unreliable seed viability limits large-scale multiplication of the crop. The current study intends to use tissue culture techniques with various plant growth regulators (PGRs), the potency of growth media, and carbon sources. From the present study on in vitro propagation using seeds, it is inferred that maximum germination percentage (72.09%) and shoot initiation were noticed in MS-medium supplemented with 2 mgL^-1 of BAP + 0.5 mgL^-1 of NAA and Similarly, maximum number of multiple shoots (10) and minimum number of days taken for multiple shoot proliferation (46.75 days) were achieved on MS medium supplemented with 5 mgL^-1 of BAP+ 0.5 mgL^-1 of NAA. Similarly, the maximum number of roots formed (3.29) and the highest root proliferation percentage (82.50%) was observed in ½ MS + 0.5 mgL^-1NAA + 1.0 mgL^-1 IBA + AC 1gL^-1. According to the results of the present experiment, it is possible to increase the number of subcultures and generate hundreds of dragon fruit plants, which would be both economically feasible and able to satisfy the growing number of needy farmers. To increase the bulk production of dragon fruit plantlets for those in need, more research must be done by fine-tuning the BAP and kinetin concentrations.