Investigation on the propagation possibilities of Allium ampeloprasum as ornamental plant in in vitro and in vivo conditions

This study was conducted to determine the possibilities of using Allium ampeloprasum as ornamental plant. For this purpose growing conditions and morphological characteristics were investigated. Different propagation materials such as seeds, bulbs and bulblets were tested in in vivo and in vitro conditions. In seed germination experiment different pre-treatments (gibberellic acid, cooling, light-darkness) were applied to the seeds in order to determine the germination period and ratio. Allium ampeloprasum seed germination was more successful in in vivo than in vitro conditions. The field study was held by using 3 different propagation materials which were bulb, bulblets and sprouted bulbs. Different measurements were taken and observations were made and showed that the best results regarding leaf number, flower stem diameter and vase life were occurred in the plants that were grown from bulbs. On the other hand the best results regarding flower stem length, flower diameter and bulb diameter and weight were occurred in the plants grown from sprouted bulbs. In terms of flower colors also there was a difference observed between the propagation materials. In in vitro experiment, different explants were taken from seed, bulbs and bulblets and the explants were cultured in MS growing media that contained different concentrations of cytokines and auxins in order to determine the growth and the bulb formation. The explants which were taken from the bulbs in all combinations showed more successful development comparing to the other explants which were obtained from seeds and bulblets. In this study, for A. ampeloprasum species propagation methods were determined and in terms of all properties it can be considered as ornamental plant and it can be used as cut flower or as land scape design plant.