Potato tissue culture

1. In-vitro production of Irish
potato micro-tubers
Jetwell Mugabe (CPMT)
10 June 2021 Seminar Series

2. Outline
• Introduction
• What is being done at Kutsaga?
• What we are proposing?
• Costs
• Conclusion and Recommendations

3. Introduction
• Micropropagation provides pathogen free
planting material
• Tissue cultured plantlets: greatest seed potato
system around the world
• Pathogen free micro-tubers or in vitro produced
tubers could also be utilized in the production of
seed potato

4. Sizes of mini-tubers and micro-tubers
Microtubers 5/7
Microtubers 7/10
Minitubers 10/15
Minitubers 15/20
Minitubers 20/25

5. Vegetative production
• Degeneration by infection
• Production material needs
to be regularly replaced
• Injection at the top of the
chain of very high quality
material (disease free)

6. Replacement of propagation material
Traditionally: applying
clonal and genealogical
selection
Field selection and
laboratory checks

7. WHAT IS CURRENTLY BEING DONE
AT KUTSAGA?

8. Plant tissue culture
• Meristem tip culture for virus
elimination assisted by the
micropropagation techniques
• Easy, rapid, flexible and give
more security for phytosanitary
quality

9. Mini-tuber production
• Mainly done in the
greenhouse or under an
insect proof netting
• NPK
• Use of pre-sterilized media
(Growmix)

10. Limitations of Mini-tuber Production
• Green houses: expensive to
set up
• Labour intensive procedure
• High risk of contamination
• They take time (3 months)
to produce (˃4 cycles per
annum)

11. WHAT ARE WE PROPOSING?

12. Flow diagram

13. Micro-tuber production
• M&S media
• A sterile environment
• 80g per litre sucrose
• Coumarin
• Kinetin
• Darkness 24h/24h
• Temperature 20oC
• Six weeks

14. Advantages of Micro-tubers
• Easy to produce
• No need for acclimatisation
• No risk of contamination
during the production cycle
(in the lab)
• Less labour requirement

15. Advantages of Micro-tubers
• Less space is required
• No artificial light is required
• Time of production is less
• Easy to sow (Mechanically)
• Easy to transport

16. Disadvantages of Micro-tubers
• In field vigour due to small
size: need hot and humid soil
and pre-sprouting before
sowing
• Not flexible (requires six
weeks)
• Some varieties may not
respond to protocols

17. Field comparison
Mini-tubers Micro-tubers
Soil
Preparation
Normal Fine sowing
flattered ridge
Seed
preparation
Pre-sprouting Pre-sprouting
Plantation Mechanically or By
hand
Mechanical -
pneumatic machine
Plantation
depth
The height of the
ridge need to be
adopted
4-5cm in the ridge

18. COSTS

19. Set-up Costs (150,000)
Item Cost (USD) Quantity Total (USD)
Green house 17,000.00 1 17,000.00
Item Cost (USD) Quantity Total (USD)
Dark room 8,000.00 1 8,000.00
Magenta jars 1.00 1 500 1,500.00
Total 9,500.00
Mini-Tubers
Micro-tubers

20. Cost of Producing 150 000 Mini-tubers
Item Cost Quantity Amount
Growmix $8.80/bag 224 US$ 1,971.00
Labour $3/day 44 labour days US$ 132.00
Basal $23/bag 18kg US$ 8.28
Nutrifol $26/5L 1L US$ 5.20
SOP $38/25kg 62kg US$ 94.24
Ammonium nitrate $7/10kg 10kg US$ 7.00
Accetamiprid +Lambda $10/500ml 500ml US$ 10.00
Accetamiprid + Abamectin $40/L 1L US$ 40.00
Imidacroprid + b-cyfluthrin $59/L 1L US$ 59.00
Copper oxychloride $11/kg 6kg US$ 66.00
Total US$ 2,392.72

21. Cost of Producing 150 000 Micro-tubers
Item Cost Quantity Amount
Sucrose 1.00/kg 6kg US$ 6.00
Coumarin $50.00/250g 250g US$ 50.00
M&S media $65/500g 330g US$ 43.00
Agar $45.00/kg 450g US$ 20.50
Kinetin $107/5g 5g US$ 107.00
Total US$ 226.50

22. Conclusion
Mini-tubers
• Green house($17 000)
• Four times a year
• High risk of diseases
• Expensive to produce
Micro-tubers
• Dark room ($8 000)
• Eight times a year
• No risk of diseases at all
• Cheaper to produce

23. Recommendations
• There is need for TRB to test our potato
varieties to available protocols
• Investing in a dark room can help in increasing
production of disease free potato seed

24. Acknowledgements
Mrs R. Mavuka
Dr G. Zvobgo
CPMT Team

25. THANK YOU