Vegetos

Abstract

Bananas (Musa spp.) are the most important tropical fruit crops and there is a pressing demand for pest free and high quality planting material. Though micropropogation is being used for multiplication of plantlets; still many cultivars can not be multiplied by micropropogation. Keeping it in view, the present study has improvised the technique of macropropogation (PBIP-IITA, Nigeria) with certain modifications. This study was taken up with an aim of generating good quality disease free plantlets in short duration from the cultivars Calcutta 4 and Kadali and their mapping population (F₁ hybrids) belonging to diploid (AA) genomic group. It was observed that the initiation media, genotypes, corm weight, months after planting and genotype x environment interactions contributed for number of propagules generated. Although macropropagation technique is genotype dependent, it can result in production of maximum of 20 to 30 plantlets per corm within first four months of planting. Corm weight of 1–3 kg was found to be ideal for macropropagation of genotypes belonging to an AA genomic group. The emergence of maximum primary and secondary shoots was during second and third month of initial planting, which could be considered as the right time to transfer the plantlets for hardening and also the genotype x environmental interactions on macropropagation efficiency could be due to different climatic conditions especially temperature and humidity. Thus the present study shows that macropropagation is an easy and effective technique than micropropogation.