Evaluation of the Chitosana effect in the rooting stage of potato var. ‘Desirée’ and in minitubers production in greenhouse.

Abstract

The plantation of potato in vitro plants in greenhouse present some problems. Mainly the low uniformity of growing populations, the low and irregular yield and the low quality of the minitubers. The Chitosan is an elicitor used in the farm for increasing the yield of the potatoes plantations. The application to different concentrations of this elicitor in the in vitro rooting stage and its effect in the production of the minitubers in greenhouse were evaluated in the present work. Chitosan was added in culture semisolid medium in concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 g.l-1 and the influence in the production of minitubers in greenhouse was evaluated. The elicitor produced fitotoxicity on plants in concentrations of 1, 10 and 100 g.l-1; the length and fresh weight of plants decreased. Nevertheless, the concentration of 0.01 g. l-1 has a favorable effect on the size, number of leaves and fresh weight of the plants. Its application improved the quality of the plants and influenced on the increase of weight and number of minitubers per plants in the greenhouse. Key words: elicitor, in vitro plants, phytotoxicity