Towards the adoption of tissue culture as a strategy for the propagation of premium industrial plantation trees

This project was undertaken to scale up the production of quality planting materials of Acacia mangium, Parasorianthes falcataria and Gmelina arborea through tissue culture protocols developed previously and to develop tissue culture protocol for dipterocarp species Shorea astylosa, S. contorta and Parashorea malaanonan. The scaling up of plantlet production of A. mangium, P. falcatoria and G. arborea was successfully carried out through the improvement, refinement of the tissue culture protocols established for these species. The protocol developed before for A. mangium proved to be the best. P. falcataria explants from seedlings directly produced more plantlets when subcultured from M28 sub 1 to M28 sub 1 (9.8) than from M8 to M28 (3.5) and the other routes. For G. arborea, the culture medium for the seeds is better replaced with M15. For all the three species, rooting can be induced in M20. Rooting was enhanced in an ordinary room condition compared to the culture room. Outplanting for the plantlets of A. mangium, P. falcatoria and G. arborea was found successful when done when the plantlets are no less than 1 inch tall or about 2 months after rooting. The potting medium 1:1 coir dust, garden soil was found appropriate for P. falcataria while sand appeared to be the best for the other two species. A two-month incubation in a plastic box or when covered with polyethylene bag can harden the clones for ambient screenhouse condition. The dipterocarp species, P. maloanonan and S. contorta, are more difficult to tissue culture than the other non-dipterocarp species. Growth and development in culture media (M8s and M15) where the other three species A. mangium, P. falcataria and G. arborea have responded well was slow and almost unremarkable. The study on dipterocarps should be continued to focus on use of other media and culture condition.