Effects of surface sterilization time and media composition on culture establishment of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) nodal explants

The study entitled the effect of time of surface sterilization methods and basal media with plant growth regulators on culture establishment of Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) nodal explant was conducted in Agri Biotech Foundation, PJTSAU Campus, Hyderabad, Telangana, between January 2024 to July 2024. The experimental design opted was Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD). In this experiment, 2 factors were included forming 42 treatments with 3 replications. First factor (A) being the time of surface sterilization and second factor (B) being the media with plant growth regulators. The interaction effect of both time of surface sterilization and effect of growth regulators supplemented in media for nodal explant was studied. The parameters like percent purity and regeneration were recorded at the 30^th day after initiation. The maximum percentage of purity (87.86%) was noticed at 0.1% HgCl₂ for 10 min and the minimum percentage of purity (65.95%) was noticed at 0.1% HgCl₂ for 5 min. The interaction between different levels of surface sterilization timings and media with growth regulators was found to be non-significant on percentage of pure explants whereas, it was found to have significant effect on percentage of regeneration efficiency. However, the maximum percentage of regeneration (88.33%) was recorded with 0.1% HgCl₂ for 10 min combined with WPM media supplemented with BAP 2 mg/L and the minimum percentage of regeneration (5.00%) was recorded with 0.2% HgCl₂ for 15 min combined with MS and WPM media supplemented with 2-iP 2 mg/L. The best outcomes were observed with 0.1% HgCl₂ for 10 minutes (A₂) and WPM + BAP 2 mg/L (B₅), resulting in the 91.67% purity and 88.33% regeneration.