Paper Details

PJB-2025-165

Optimized protocol for artificial pollination and in-vitro propagation of Dendrobium sonia (Orchidaceae)

Ameer Ahmed Mirbahar, Ghulam Abbas Narejo, Syeda Kahkashan Kazmi and Saifullah Khan
Abstract

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Orchids hold significant ornamental and economic value but face challenges in propagation due to low natural pollination rates, seed germination, and survival. Artificial pollination and in-vitro culture techniques provide an alternate approach to overcome these limitations. This study aimed to develop an effective protocol for artificial pollination and large-scale propagation of the orchid Dendrobium sonia under semi-controlled greenhouse conditions. Healthy, mature, and fully blooming potted D. sonia plants were selected for the artificial pollination experiment. Distinct changes in artificially pollinated flowers were observed, such as wilting of flower petals and a swollen ovary with a color change. Mechanical pollination was calculated as pollination percentage (PP) with 91.72% success across D. Sonia plants, demonstrating its efficiency in controlled breeding programs. After maturation, pods were sterilized, and seeds were sown on two types of MS media for asymbiotic germination. High asymbiotic germination efficiency was observed for D. sonia seeds on both MS media, with seeds turning from white to cream color after 4 days and green color after 15 days. Maximum germination (95.5%) was observed on full MS medium supplemented with PGRs. Plantlets acclimatized in coconut husk + charcoal reached a height of 13.0 cm, compared to 12.8 cm (coconut husk alone) and 10.7 cm (charcoal alone). These findings highlight the potential of this optimized protocol for efficient, large-scale propagation of D. sonia in a semi-controlled environment.

To Cite this article: Mirbahar, A.A., G.A. Narejo, S.K. Kazmi and S. Khan. 2026. Optimized protocol for artificial pollination and in-vitro propagation of Dendrobium sonia (Orchidaceae). Pak. J. Bot., 58(6): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2026-6(2)  
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