Tissue Culture Technique Developed for Asparagus Propagation

Abstract

Asparagus officinalis L. is a cross-pollinated dioecious crop. Staminate plants are more productive than pistillate plants (12, 23, 24). If a field of all staminate plants, representing superior selections, could be established, then increased yields would result. Propagation of asparagus by seeds results in almost equal numbers of staminate and pistillate plants and in individual plants of varying yielding ability (4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 23, 24, 39). Propagation by stem cuttings has not been possible (29, 30) and division of individual crowns has not been commericially feasible as only a few genetically identical plants at any one time can be developed. It would be an advantage to propagate genetically identical asparagus plants in large quantities from superior selections. Tissue culture shows promise as a useful method to reach this objective. It has been estimated that 300,000 transplantable asparagus plants may be produced from a single shoot apex culture in a year (9), but it remains to be demonstrated in actual practice. This discussion will summarize the tissue culture methods that have been developed and describe a possible procedure for vegetative mass production of asparagus plants through tissue culture.