Influence of substrate hormonal composition on in vitro multiplication of Arundo donax L

Arundo Donax L., or Giant Reed lias a high biomass productivity and it is considered, even by EU programmes, as a promising crop for energy but also for cellulose for paper and rayon industry. It may be also useful for soil erosion control. Traditional propagation of giant reed is by rhizomes division. However, this type of propagation, is time consuming and requires a considerable economical effort for explanting, division of rhizomes, planting and successful establishment of the crop. Such disadvantages could be overcome by in “vitro” propagation. However, regeneration and large scale propagation have not been reported so far for this species. In order to set up a protocol for in vitro multiplication of giant reed a series of research has been carried out. First results on in vitro initiation of the crop has been described previously (Cavallaro et al., 2007). In this paper, results of a research aiming at studying the influence of substrate hormonal composition 011 shoot multiplication are discussed. In this research, the effects of two different hormones (6-benzylaminopurine-BA and Kinetin-K) and two different concentrations (2. 3 mg L-1). were evaluated.