Planting Media and Growth Regulators on Regeneration of Pineapple Seedlings from Crown Leaf Buds, Edition 1

Kilifi County has a large potential of over 2,000 Ha suitable for pineapple cultivation that has not been fully exploited due to a lack of adequate clean planting material. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of media and the application of plant growth hormones (auxin or gibberellins) on the regeneration of propagules from pineapple crown leaf buds treated with auxins or gibberellin hormones. The study was carried out at Pwani University Crop Science farm from January to December of 2022. Treatments included: planting crown leaves (with buds) treated with auxin or gibberellins hormones (at a spacing of 4 cm by 6 cm) in plastic containers filled with sand, sawdust, coir dust, chitosan, or loamy clay soils. A randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement of treatments, replicated thrice, was used. Auxin and gibberellins hormones represented the main-plots. The plastic containers (the sub-plots) used for the experiment measured 30cm by 36cm by 15 cm in height. Data collected from the tagged plants included: time to shoot emergence, plant height, leaf length and breadth, number of leaves per plant, chlorophyll content, final root length, final number of roots, root weight, stem diameter and average root length. These were used to determine the effects of auxin, gibberellins and media on growth of the propagules, on time taken to attain a height of 15-20 cm. Obtained data was subjected to ANOVA using Genstat Statistical software 14th Edition and means obtained were compared using Tukey’s honest significant difference test (p < 0.05). The results showed that there were significant interaction effects between the different media and plant hormones. Chitosan had the highest growth of over 50% in all measured parameters, namely plant height, leaf length and width, stem diameter, root length, root weight and chlorophyll content. Auxin hormone resulted in the highest values of most measured growth parameters compared to gibberellins hormone. The study also showed that auxin-treated propagules had their initial roots originating from the base of the seedlings, while gibberellins treated propagules had their initial roots originating from the base of the cut crown leaves.