The traditional process for production of apple rootstocks presents low efficiency. The tissue culture techniques have been a viable alternative, because they allow to increase the multiplication process, they avoid dissemination of diseases and maintains the plant mother's characteristics. The objective of this work is identify a substitute for agar in the growth media for the rooting of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) rootstock, cultivar M-7. The experimental design was completely randomized, in a 5x4 factorial scheme, with 4 replications and 4 explants per plot. The salt concentrations of the medium MS were 0%, 50%, 100%, 150% and 200 %. The substrates were agar, vermiculite and sand, in all possible combinations. The MS medium was placed into flask and autoclaved at 121ºC for 20 minutes. The growth medium was supplied with 1.0 mg L-1 IBA. The evaluations were monitored through the following parameters: shoot height, dry weight and fresh weight matter of shoot and root system. The best growth shoots and root systems are obtained with the use of agar 3.0 and 6.0 g L-1, regardless of the salt concentrations. The use of sand gave similar results as compared to agar, when the salts concentration was 100% of the MS medium.
Malus domestica; tissue culture; culture medium