Factors affecting in vitro growth and propagation of Furcraea Var. Green

Furcraea (Furcraea gigantea Vent.) is a beautiful ornamental foliage plant. It is commonly propagated by bulbils only. Conventional method of propagation is rather slow and of longer duration. While standardizing the method of micropropagation of Furcraea, the factors influencing in vitro growth and propagation of Furcraea were examined. Different factors studied were surface sterilants (HgCl₂ and sodium hypochlorite); pH (6 levels); sucrose (5 levels) and size of bulbils explants. In case of surface sterilization treatments, better response was noticed with HgCl₂ (0.05%) treatment for 5 minutes, which recorded minimum death of culture (12.5%) with no contamination. Though pH 6.5 recorded cent per cent establishment and maximum shoot growth, reasonably good establishment of the explant (90–100%) and growth of sprouted shoot was noticed on a pH ranging from 5.5 to 6.5. Root induction was inhibited at pH 5.8. Low sucrose level (1%) showed maximum establishment with better shoot growth. However, proliferation was better on medium fortified with 2 and 3% sucrose levels. Among the different size of bulbils, whole bulbils showed higher shoot growth as compared to half bulbils or quarter pieces of bulbils on establishment medium.