Propagation of Some Date Palm Cultivars by Using Tissue Culture Methods

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the fruit crops in the Middle East with high economical importance. In the near future a high number of young date palms will be necessary for Syrian farmers. The traditional vegetative propagation by using offshoots is limited by the few number of offshoots produced per plant in its whole life. Propagation of date palm by using tissue culture techniques is an alternative way to produce plants with high quality in a large scale. In our experiments, a protocol for somatic embryogenesis to propagate date palm cultivars interesting for Syria (cvs. 'Zahdi', 'Khistawi', 'Asabe Elarous', 'Barban') by using zygotic embryos should be developed. The protocol used for the Tunisian cultivar 'Deglet Nour' was not successful for the cultivars interesting for Syrian farmers. Isolated zygotic embryos cultured on modified MS media with 100 mg/L 2,4-D and 1.5 g/L activated charcoal formed embryogenic callus in five to nine weeks in dependence of the cultivar. The regeneration of somatic embryos, shoot elongation and multiplication occurred on modified MS media with 1 mg/L NAA and 1.5 g/L activated charcoal for cvs. 'Asabe Elarous' and 'Barban'. For cvs. 'Zahdi' and 'Khistawi' further research is necessary.