Improved production of potato microtubers using a temporary immersion system

A temporary immersion system for potato microtuber production was designed using 4-l vessels. This culture technique showed several advantages compared to solid cultures: i.e., three fold increase in shoot length, more internodes per plant and improved vigor. In the tuber induction stage, microtubers can be induced at all plant nodes, indicating that the tuberization is not restricted to specific regions. For both cultivars tested, Desiree and Atlantic, an average of 3.1 and 2.8 tubers per single node cutting was achieved after 9 weeks in culture. The size and weight of the tubers were higher than on solid media. Scale up was performed with cv. Atlantic in 10-l polycarbonate flasks and 12 units were mounted containing 150 single nodal cuttings each. An average of 2.6 tubers per inoculated cutting was obtained, with 1.3 g fresh weight per microtuber. Temporary immersion is a valuable option for potato microtuber production, as well as for shoot production during the planting season. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.