IN VITRO PROPAGATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BLACK CHOKEBERRY ARONIA MELANOCARPA (Michx.) ELLIOT

The fruits of Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliot are recognized for their many benefits on the human body due to their medicinal and nutritional qualities. In order to ensure the need for propagating material recently requested by the market, an attempt was made to make the multiplication more efficient. Classical methods of multiplication have given poor results, which has led to the approach of multiplication by in vitro cultures. The varieties of interest were Nero and Melrom. The research carried out so far has established effective culture media for the initiation, multiplication and rooting phases as follows: MS mineral salts and LS vitamins with a hormonal balance consisting of GAɜ, BAP and IBA for the initiation and multiplication stages. The phytohormones GAɜ and IBA were used for rooting. The regeneration of the explants in the initiation stage reached an average of 86%. The multiplication rate was on average at Nero of 6 shoots / explant and at Melrom 12.6 shoots / explant. The rooting on the established in vitro culture media was 97% for Nero and 80.19% for Melrom. The acclimatization percentages were 92.15% for Nero and 90.41% for Melrom. In vitro propagation of Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliot has proven to be the method that gives the best results for the multiplication of this species.