Productive Characteristics of Two Different Artichoke Genotypes (Cynara cardunculus L. subsp scolymus (L.) Hegi) after Micropropagation

Micropropagation of globe artichoke attracts a growing interest by commercial laboratories. Large scale production by in vitro culture of early producing artichokes genotypes however still encounters some constraints which do not permit its introduction in commercial protocols. Among these the appearance of untrue-to-type, late mutants seem to be up to now the most difficult to overcome. In this paper, we report the preliminary results of a research aiming at evaluating the agronomic behaviour of micropropagated plants of an early genotype 'Violetto di Sicilia' and a late cultivar 'Romanesco C3'. Moreover, in the early genotype, the agronomic behaviour of plants derived from ovoli of the micropropagated plants giving the earliest productions was investigated. In both the studied genotypes, micropropagated plants showed uniform head characteristics and conformity to varietal standards. In early micropropagated genotypes, however, earliness was low in part due to the high temperatures registered during the first months after the vegetative re-growth. Plantlets from ovoli of the micropropagated plants showed a good conformity to the varietal standards and a higher earliness as compared to mother plants. However, in the nursery production of early genotypes, these data confirm the opportunity to use micropropagated plants as mother plants, selecting for earliness the plants where ovoli must be produced and collected.