Tissue-Culture Propagation of Rare Grapevine Cultivars at Al-Musayyib Technical College

In an effort to preserve rare cultivars of fruits and plants through tissue-culture technology, researcher Saif Ali Raja from the Plant Production Techniques Department at the Technical College of Al-Musayyib has successfully propagated two rare grapevine varieties—Seedless Ruby Grapes and Witch’s Fingers Grapes—using plant tissue culture techniques. This achievement supports the conservation of these cultivars and enables the production of disease-free seedlings with true-to-type genetic characteristics.
The study was supervised by Dr. Omar Hamid Ubaid.

The experiment was conducted in the college’s agricultural laboratories, where apical and nodal buds were cultured in sterile media after treatment with disinfectant solutions and antifungal and antibacterial agents. Multiple concentrations of plant growth regulators, including cytokinins and auxins, were applied during the stages of initiation, establishment, and rooting in order to determine the optimal levels that yield the highest rates of growth and multiplication under laboratory conditions.

The findings indicate the possibility of applying a unified tissue-culture protocol for both cultivars, which facilitates the large-scale production of healthy plants within a short period and with high efficiency.

This study reaffirms that plant tissue culture is a reliable and effective tool for propagating rare grapevine cultivars. It contributes to their genetic conservation and provides high-quality plant materials to support future breeding, improvement, and production programs.