Production of quality planting material in commercial banana cvs. Rasthali (Silk, AAB) and Neypoovan (Neypoovan, AB) through farmer-friendly macropropagation technique and their field evaluation

• Published in: South African journal of botany Vol. 167; pp. 410 - 418
• Main Authors: MS, Saraswathi, M, Bathrinath, G, Kannan, C, Karthi, J, Mahendran, C, Sankar, P, Durai, S, Uma
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-04-2024
• Subjects: Bed method; Decapitation; Decortication; Macropropagation; Pot method; Bed method; Decapitation; Pot method; Macropropagation; Decortication
• ISSN: 0254-6299; 1727-9321
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2024.02.047

•Macropropagation is a low cost farmer friendly technique for large scale production of quality planting material in banana.•Macropropagation technique is likely to bridge the gap in supply of healthy planting material at a reasonable cost to the small and marginal farmers.•Musa cvs. Rasthali and Neypoovan, are the two most important choice varieties in the southern parts of India.•Sucker pre-treatment and age had a significant influence on the propagation rate.•Macropropagated plants of both cultivars performed at par with conventional suckers under field conditions and the survival rate was 100 %.
Macropropagation is a low cost farmer friendly alternative to tissue culture propagation to cater to the farmers’ need for quality planting material at an affordable cost. Attempts were made to study the effect of age and hot water treatment on macropropagation of cvs. Rasthali (AAB, Silk) and Neypoovan (AB, Neypoovan) in pot and bed methods. Age of the sucker, hot water treatment and propagation method played a vital role on shoot bud production in both the test cultivars. In cv. Rasthali, bed method produced maximum number of plants (50.5) in five months old suckers subjected to hot water treatment in 42.2 days but the same treatment produced only 24.7 plants under pot method. In cv. Neypoovan, five months old suckers subjected to hot water treatment resulted in 23.3 and 16.7 plants in bed and pot methods respectively. Therefore, five months old suckers with hot water treatment under bed method are more appropriate for macropropagation purpose in banana. Results of field evaluation indicated that macropropagated bananas were at par with control in respect of all plant parameters like plant height, bunch weight and fruit parameters like total soluble sugar (TSS) and acidity.