Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Agricultural Botany

The current project was conducted during 2014-2018 to study the effect of flurprimidol (Flur.), Paclobutrazol (PBZ) and thidiazuron (TDZ) on plantlets growth and acclimatization of stevia rebaudiana spanti and China-1 cultivar. Stem nodal segments were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of Flur., PBZ and TDZ. In Spanti cultivar the best in vitro root induction (100%) was achieved on MS medium with 0.16 ppm Flur. Furthermore, in China-1 cultivar MS medium supplemented with 0.16ppm flur.induced the best morphological characteristics. As a result of anatomy, all studied growth regulators significantly enhanced the anatomical characters of leaf and stem. Flur.at 0.16mg\l surpassed, for instance, midvein and lamina thickness, length and width of leaf vascular bundle as well as stem diameter, xylem and phloem thickness. The rooted plantlets from explant planted on (MS) medium supplemented with 0.16ppm Flur. were successfully established in soil and grown to maturity at the survival rate of 100% in the greenhouse in both cultivar. Pot experiment was conducted in greenhouse on stevia plant to study the effect of both NH4NO3 and KNO3 under the treatments of BA, Kin, and TDZ. NH4NO3 excelled KNO3 fertilization on all growth characters except plant height. BA treatment tended to increase total fresh weight / plant as compared to those of Kin and TDZ in some cases

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