VARIABILITY OF TRAITS OF GROWTH - IN VIVO AND IN VITRO - ON GREENHOUSE CARNATION

Several traits of growth on greenhouse carnation were analysed at seven varieties, growing both in vivo and in vitro. In vitro culture, proliferation and root formation were more intense in Pink Sol, Caribe and Tanga than in Pink Sim, Obor and Domingo cultivars. The highest intervarietal variability, under in vivo conditions, was recorded for the number of flowers per plant and number of petals per flower, while in vitro all analysed characters showed an extremely large span of variability values (s% = 26.5 - 109.1). The heritability in broad sense showed high values for the analysed characters, both in vivo (H2 = 0.548 - 0.992) and in vitro (H2 = 0.688 -0.953) conditions. There has been noted a tight positive and negative correlation among a lot of the traits of plants, both in vivo and in vitro. Correlations among the desirable traits can be used as selection indices, in carnation breeding