Comparison of rooting of African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl.) shoots in in vitro and in vivo culture conditions

In the present study, we compared shoot adaptation and rooting in in vitro and in vivo culture conditions using African violet shoots. In in vitro condition, we used treatments of NAA and IBA with the concentration of Zero (as control), 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg/L and in in vivo condition, two culture media of peat and perlite were used separately for rooting of shoots. Increased IBA caused rooting and regeneration, but increasing NAA led to dedifferentiation and eventually callus tissue proliferation on leaves and/or petioles. In controls however, there was no proliferation and/or tissue dedifferentiation and finally callus development, and shoots rooting occurred in shorter period than the other treatments. There was significant difference in developed roots length in perlite medium compared to peat and control. NAA was more effective than IBA, physiologically. African violet shoots had more temperate behavior toward IBA. We had better results using shoots rooted in perlite medium during transplantation and adaptation of shoots. Elimination of rooting stage in in vitro condition and to replace it with simple method of in vivo condition is a great step in commercial production of African violet. We declare this technique can be examined and used for rooting of shoots in other similar ornamental plants such as Begonia, Episcia, Gloxinia, Streptocarpus, etc.