Vol. 11, Issue 11 (2022)

Present investigation studied on the effect of different surface sterilization agents under in vitro culture of papaya (Carica papaya L.) variety Red Lady was carried out at the Tissue Culture Laboratory Department of Fruit Science, Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Jammu during the year 2020-2022. Effect of three different surface sterilization agents’ i.e., mercuric chloride, Sodium hypochlorite and ethanol were tested on the contamination-free establishment of papaya (Carica papaya L.) variety Red Lady under in vitro conditions. All the sterilization agents performed better results when used individually for different time intervals. Before sterilization explants were treated with bavistin (0.2%) for 20 minutes. Maximum Survival (70%) and least death (10%) percentage of explant were observed in mercuric chloride (0.1%) for 2 minutes after 3 weeks of culturing. Critical observation was recorded as the duration increased contamination percentage decrease. On the other hand Mercuric chloride for 3 minutes showed less contamination percent (15%) as compared to the Mercuric chloride for 2 minutes (20%). Significantly decrease in contamination (35%) and increase in death ratio (55%) with 10 percent survival was observed in those explants which were treated with sodium hypochlorite (5%) for 15 minutes.