Rebeca Occhionero, María Luz Nanni and Germán Serino
Chacra Experimental Agrícola Santa Rosa. Colonia Santa Rosa, Salta, Argentina; biofabrica@chacraexperimental.org
Tissue culture allows for the rapid propagation of sugarcane planting material of high phytosanitary and genetic quality. This paper describes the modernization of the tissue culture facilities at the Santa Rosa Agricultural Experimental Farm. Previously, a production capacity of 40,000 plants/month was achieved by operating 112 temporary immersion bioreactors through a cost-effective process using chemically sterilized 5-liter plastic bottles as bioreactors. The extension of the facilities to operate 288 bioreactors inoculated with 80 explants each has demonstrated that up to 84.280 plants can be generated per batch in a continuous process, with each bioreactor producing an average of 293 plants. The average incidence of contamination during tissue culture was less than 2%, and the average nursery mortality was less than 5%. Temporary immersion systems are cost-effective and will be the basis for increasing production capacity to more than 1,800,000 seedlings per year by June 2026, allowing us to meet industry demands in the future.