Breaking embryonic seed dormancy of malus pumila mill. (apple) under In-vitro conditions by kinetin

Mature seeds of apple (Mallus pumila) Mill. (Cv. Golden delicious) are dormant and do not germinate unless their dormancy is removed by several weeks of moist-cold treatment. We investigated the effect of short-term growth regulator (NAA, BAP, Kinetin and 2,4-D) pre-treatment on breaking of apple embryonic dormancy. Embryos excised aseptically from non stratified Cultivator ‘Red Delicious’ apple seeds were placed in a solution of various growth regulators at different concentration for different time period before germination in Murashige and Skoog’s media in order to remove embryonic dormancy in them. It was observed that only Kinetin pre-treatment at lower concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20 mg/l for 6-12 hours) proved to break embryonic dormancy of apple. At higher concentration of Kinetin pre-treatment i.e. 40, 60, 80 and 100 mg/l for the time period of 2-4 hours, the apple embryos were transformed to callus. The germinated apple plantlets after one month of germination were hardened in plastic cups contained sterile garden soil, farmyard soil and sand (2:1:1) and finally transferred to green house. The plantlets showed 90 % survival rate. The objective of this study was to remove embryonic dormancy of apple seeds by various growth regulator pre-treatements and enhance germination in a shorter period of time instead of going for stratification for several weeks. This could be very useful in plant breeding programme by shortening the breeding cycle and introducing the apple to tropical regions where prolonged winters are not observed. Copy Right, IJCR, 2012, Academic Journals. All rights reserved.