This study aimed to reduce the production cost of culture media for agar substitution by corn starch and physical sterilization in autoclave by chemical sterilization with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) in the plantlets of pineapple ‘Vitória’ propagated in vitro. The shoots were transferred to rooting medium composed of MS salts, White´s vitamins, myo-inositol and sucrose. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design in afactorial 3 x 2: media jellified with agar (6,0 g L-1), corn starch (60,0 g L-1) and agar (3,0 g L-1) + corn starch (30,0 g L-1), sterilized in autoclave or chemically boiling the medium and use of 0,05% NaClO to rinse the glassware. After a month of in vitro rooting, part of the plants were evaluated for number of leaves and roots and masses of fresh and dry materials. The rest of the plantlets was acclimatized for 90 days in a greenhouse. At the end of this period number of leaves, number of roots, fresh weight and dry weight of aerial part, root and total; leaf area, height and diameter of rosette were evaluated. The boiling + chemical sterilization did not differ of autoclave sterilization for the majority of parameters, while the corn starch enhanced growth of plantlets both in vitro and during acclimatization.
agar; autoclaving; chemical sterilization; gelling agent
