Evaluation of effect of natural and artificial lights on potato micropropagation

Providing light source for plantlet growth in potato tissue culture is expensive. So, an experiment was conducted in factorial arrangement based on completely randomized block design with nine replications under in vitro and four replications in greenhouse conditions to study plantlet production under natural light and comparing the morphological traits of these plantlets with the ones grown under fluorescent light conditions. Treatments consisted of two potato cultivars of Agria and Savalan and natural and fluorescent light. Results indicated that Savalan plantlets height was almost the same in both light conditions while a higher plantlet height was found in fluorescent light conditions in Agria. Root length, stem diameter, leaf area, number of nodes per plantlet, number of branches per plantlet and plantlet fresh weight was higher in natural light compared to fluorescent in both cultivars. An increase of 23 and 6 percent in leaf area, 2.2 and 22.5 percent in node number per plantlet and 18.9 and 17.2 percent in fresh weight was found in natural light compared to fluorescent light in Agria and Savalan, respectively. Longer internodes were observed in fluorescent light. Generally, according to the suitable morphological traits of plantlets grown under natural light and higher minituber production of these plants in greenhouse, reduction in minituber production costs could be achieved by using natural instead of fluorescent light in in vitro conditions.