ABSTRACT
A fodder crop, Bajra Napier is an interspecific hybrid of bajra (Pennisetum glaucum L.) and napier (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.), a member of the Poaceae family commonly known as King grass, offers outstanding green forage output all year round in tropical conditions. It doesn’t set fertile seed but provides quality herbage yield. Therefore, the use of encapsulation technology in Bajra Napier hybrid reduces the volume of planting material by generating artificial seed-like living regenerative structure, developing into a young whole plant under in vitro and field conditions. So this study was carried out in plant tissue culture laboratory, NSP/BSP Seed Unit, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during the year 2023-24. Among the various concentrations of mercuric chloride and ethanol used for surface disinfection, pretreatment followed by treating with ethanol at 80 % was the best treatment combination with lower percent contamination (13.10 %) and higher per cent survival (86.16 %). Among the two different growth regulators used (BAP and AgNPs) at different concentrations, BAP at 2.0 mg/l showed high frequency of shoots/explant (5.16). Among the cultivars (DHN-6 and CoBN-5), CoBN-5 showed higher no. of shoots/explant (4.38), shoot length (20.56 cm) and taken less days for initiation (3.67). Significant differences was observed among the treatments for survival percentage of explants, mean length of shoots, no. of shoots/explant and showed lower in control. Among interactions, CoBN-5 with BAP at 2.0 mg/l recorded significantly higher no. of shoots/explant (5.88), shoot length (27.67 cm), survival rate (52.4%) and taken less days for initiation (2.42). Among the different auxins tried for rooting of microshoots, MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l NAA showed highest per cent rooting, higher number of roots and highest length of primary root. Among interactions, CoBN-5 with 1.0 mg/l NAA recorded higher per cent rooting (39.02 %), higher number of roots (7.63) and longer primary root (4.87). The synthetic seeds with constituents of MS nutrients, streptomycin sulphate (0.1%) and carbendazim (0.1%) gave not only good protection against contaminants, but also resulted in germination of nearly 50 per cent of encapsulated axillary buds.