Woody plant propagation at Deroose Plants: overcoming recalcitrance at various stages

Since the 1980’s Deroose Plants is using plant tissue culture to propagate ornamental, fruit and industrial commodity crops. To provide young plants at a commercial scale, a thorough research and development trajectory is needed to overcome bottle necks in the micropropagation cycle. Many of these bottle necks depend on the genus, the species, the variety or broadly speaking, the genotype. Overcoming the recalcitrance of rooting of Eucalyptus gunnii, Argania spinosa, Elaeis guineensis and Rubus sp. are clear examples of this. Along the same lines, overcoming the variety dependent recalcitrance to somatic embryogenesis of Hevea brasiliensis is necessary to successfully propagate these trees in vitro. By refining this methodology, Deroose Plants has developed a protocol to multiply more than 10 different varieties. Moreover, recently, protocols for clonal root stock production have been developed, thus providing the basis for future grafting procedures with certified clean material of clonal varieties that can be used as scions and clonal rootstocks of Hevea. These developments pave the way to commercial propagation of quality woody plant varieties, offering a safe source of high-quality, pathogen-free material for growers worldwide.