Abstract:
Blackberry is a crop of great economic potential due to its health benefits to humans. Despite the economic importance, it has not been exploited in Kenya. Eighty-four species have been identified in the country but there is little information on propagation about the crop. With enough research blackberry can be adopted for commercialization. To ease Commercialization, a quick propagation procedure needs to be developed. In the present study, sterilization, different plant part explants and size of explant were evaluated inRubus fruiticous, Rubus apatelus and Rubus volkensis.Complete Randomized Design composed of three replications per treatment was used. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model procedure of the statistical analysis system (SAS) program (SAS institute I.nc, 2007). Significant means were separated using Tukey’s honestly significant deference (Tukey’s HSD) test (P≤ 0.05). For sterilization experiments, a wash with tap water, Caberndezim for 10min, 5% NaOCl for 2 min and 70% ethanol for 2 min gave the least contamination of 11.11% and the highest survival rate of explants per vessel of 5.111 explants per culture vessel at 5% level of significance. Nodal sections from apical sections had the highest survival rates of explants per vessel with Rubus fruiticosus giving 100% survival. Between the wild species Rubus volkensisa wild species responded better while Rubus apatelus had 0.000 explants per vessel. On the different explant sizes tested for the species apatelusthere were significant effects on survival rates in which size 2.1-3.0 cm had highest survival rate of 93.333%. Key words: Micropropagation, in vitro, wild, blackberry
