Experimental Production of Buds on the Roots of Potatoes

Abstract

Two methods—breeding and the eye-excision technique of Asseyeva¹—have been extensively used in the investigation of suspected periclinal chimeras in potatoes. They both give information on the LII layer at the stem apex (eye-excision may also sometimes apparently give information on LIII). Evidence on the constitution of LI can be obtained for certain chimeras by X-ray treatment², but there is at present no method which gives definite information on LIII. One obvious way of investigating the LIII of chimeras would be by way of buds produced on roots. A method of producing root buds in potatoes has now been found and is described here. Similar methods might be successful for other plants which do not normally produce root buds.