Micropropagation of pitaya (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hylocereus undatus</Emphasis> Britton et rose)

Summary A procedure for micropropagation of pitaya using thidiazuron (TDZ) and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) is described. Explants were excised from young joints of mature plants and cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) containing 0.5 μM NAA and 0.5 μM TDZ. Shoots produced from these first explants were cut up to produce secondary explants, either by decapitation or by longitudinal division into three parts. The decapitated and longitudinal explants were cultured on MS supplemented with 0.5 μM NAA and either 0.01, 0.09, 0.5, or 0.9 μM TDZ. Decapitated explants produced more shoots at higher frequency that the longitudinal explants. For both types of secondary explants, most shoots were developed from the distal parts. Shoots produced from secondary explants were rooted in MS and then transferred to soil where they produced normal plants.