Direct plant regeneration from leaves of Prunus rootstock GF-677 (Prunus amygdalus × P. persica).

The effect of two culture media viz., Murashige & Skoog (MS) and Lepoivre (LP) supplemented with 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 mg l -1 benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 mg l -1 naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) was examined on shoot regeneration from leaves of Prunus rootstock GF-677. LP medium was found to be superior producing 29.85% regenerated shoot, 3.39 shoot number and 3.43 cm shoot length whereas MS medium produced 20.88% regenerated shoot, 1.90 shoot number and 2.28 cm shoot length. Moreover, LP medium produced longer and healthy shoots whereas stunted and yellow shoots were observed on MS medium. Regarding the interaction between media and growth regulators, the best interaction was found in LP medium supplemented with 2.0 mg l -1 BAP and 0.75 mg l -1 NAA (T11) resulting in 55% regenerated shoots, 4.28 shoot number and 4.25 cm shoot length while 40% regenerated shoots, 3.20 numbers of shoots and 3.80 cm shoot length were observed on MS medium with the same combination of cytokinins and auxins. As far as rooting is concerned, the effect of two iron chelating agents viz., ethylenediamine di-o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (Fe-EDDHA) and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (Fe-EDTA) was evaluated at concentration of 100, 200 and 300 mg l -1 . Fe-EDDHA proved to be superior chelating agent producing 95% rooting percentage, 3.40 root number and 6.88 cm root length at 200 mg l -1 (T5). Conversely Fe-EDTA produced about 40% rooting percentage, 1.83 root number and 2.57 cm root length at 100 mg l -1 (T1). Chlorotic and small roots were observed with Fe-EDTA while strong