Micropropagation in viticulture: twenty years of experience

Abstract

Vitroplant began as a micropropagation laboratory in the early 1980’s to respond to a growing need for hybrid peach-almond GF677 rootstocks that were particularly suited to excessively dry or soils inducing chlorosis and for replanting. Today, micropropagation is the most advanced agamic multiplication technique allowing an elevated number of genetically identical plants to be obtained in a short time due to an exponential growth rate of the number of individuals with each subculture step. Toward the end of the 1980’s Prof. Carmine Liuni, director of the Viticulture Institute of Turi (Bari), proposed a collaboration with Vitroplant for in vitro propagation with the aim of resolving some of the numerous problems found in viticulture nurseries. Micropropagation has shown to be an essential technique for the production of healthy material in quantity and rapidly, two aspects that are very useful for clonal selection or genetic improvement programs, providing nurseries with sufficient starting material in a timely manner.