The Impacts of Medium and Benzyladenine on Micropropagation and Micrografting of the Main Commercial Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) Cultivars

Micrografting can be used to produce healthy seedlings, assess scion-rootstock compatibility and promote precocity. The first objective of this project was to study the impacts of in vitro micropropagation of four major Iranian pistachio cultivars, namely ‘Ahmad Aghaei’, ‘Akbari’, ‘Badami Sefid’ and ‘Kalle Ghochi’ in two different medium Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Driver and Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW) at different concentrations of benzyl adenine (0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mg L-1). The second objective of this project was to examine the effects of ‘Badami-Riz-Zarand’ and ‘Akbari’ rootstocks and micro-scion size (less than 5 and between 5-10 mm) on micrografting of the pistachio cultivars. The results showed that explants of the Akbari cultivar had the highest survival rate of meristems establishment in the DKW medium with 1 mg L-1 benzyl adenine. In the proliferation stage, ‘Akbari’ showed the highest values ​​for proliferation rate, shoot number, shoot length and leaf number whereas, ‘Kalle Ghochi’ had the lowest values ​​for these traits. Moreover, no significant differences were observed between ‘Ahmad Aghaei’, ‘Akbari’ and ‘Badami Sefid’ plantlets in terms of quality during the growing season. The micrografting results on seedlings showed that the scion of the Badami Sefid cultivar with a 5-10 mm size on the ‘Badami-Riz-Zarand’ rootstock had the highest grafting success rate and the lowest cultivar; in contrast, was ‘Kalle Ghochi’ with a scion less than 5 mm on ‘Akbari’.