Rapid tissue culture production of hazelnut cultivar germplasm

The Australian Hazelnut Industry is a new and emerging industry with the potential annual value of the hazelnut crop in Tasmania alone estimated to be in the order of $10-15 million. Currently propagation is a slow and inefficient process with suckers collected from mature trees and grown on in nurseries. This parent material may harbour diseases and pests; also surviving progeny have inconsistent growth rates, undesirable suckering and non-uniform growth habits, making orchard establishment challenging. The development of tissue culture technologies for Hazelnuts has been pioneered in Oregon, USA, resulting in new varieties and improved planting stock underpinning successful industry establishment in the USA. Whilst tissue culture propagation has been attempted within Australia, there has been little success with local varieties (B. Baldwin, per. comm. Hazelnut Growers Association of Australia -HGA). This project examined strategies to optimise the transfer of field grown cuttings into asceptic tissue culture, by testing different tissue ages and types (dormant or active buds) and disinfestation treatments (sodium hypochlorite). Further, once in tissue culture, we optimised tissue culture protocols for rapid multiplication including culture establishment, shoot elongation, root initiation, and propagation through nodal cuttings. Key outcomes indicated that field grown cuttings could be grown in asceptic tissue culture conditions after continuous subculturing (3-4 cycles). Key cultivars including ‘TBC’ and ‘Lewis’ were both able to be grown in artificial media although shoot growth rates and root initiation varied between these cultivars. The benefits of tissue culture for the hazelnut industry are also discussed.