Using tap water in preparing media instead of distilled water gave significant higher number of shoots and leaves, in addition to an insignificant increase in shoot fresh weight, shoot length and total chlorophyll content of both Gerbera and Lilium explants at multiplication stage.
At the rooting stage, in both plants the number of leaves and root length were higher in plantlets when using tap water than when using distilled water in media preparation. However, the effect was statistically significant on root length in case of Gerbera only, and on leaf number in case of Lilium only. Insignificant increments in plantlet fresh weight, shoot length, root fresh weight, root number and chlorophyll content of Gerbera and Lilium plantlets were found when using tap water than distilled water.
Using tap water instead of distilled water in the approximately 30 tissue culture labs in Egypt may save yearly an amount of 13635 m³ of tap water intended originally for human potable purposes, 1350000 kilowatt of electric power and L.E.822476 as a total cost, taking into consideration that these figures may change from lab to lab, from time to time and from a country to the other. Details of these figures are mentioned in the feasibility study.