oa Improve the production of two Qatari date palm cultivars ShiShy and Lulu for food security

The response of plant tissue to standard growth media varies widely due to the genetic diversity of the plant cultivars studied. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of micronutrients on date palm growth and which of these micronutrients are critical for improving growth combined with Paclobutrazol or without on in vitro of elongation stage. In vitro growth of two cultivars was determined by varying five treatments that included minor salts (EDTA-chelated iron, Cuso4,) alone or combined with Paclobutrazol. The effects of these five treatments of plantlet length, trunk thickness, rooting number and Chlorophyll A, B were investigated. The results obtained after three months showed that, increase copper sulphate on MS elongation media combined with Paclobutrazol was more effective for increasing strongly of trunk thickness as well as rooting number compared with normal MS level. While poor response was found when increase of Fe in the chelated form of Fe-EDTA on MS elongation media. For cultivars, shishy gave the highest plantlets length as well as root number, while the increase of trunk thickness was achieved with cultivar LuLu. The greatest formation of chlorophylls A, B was observed when increase copper sulphate on MS elongation media with cultivar LuLu. The survival rate after 3 months was related to the medium used during the elongation phase, the survival of plantlets reached to 98.66% with cultivar lulu at the acclimatization stage.