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STUDY ON MACRO PROPAGATION OF BANANA : TRIAL CONDUCTED AT HRC NAGICHERRA BLOCK-1

Introduction : More than 95% of Banana and plantains are vegetatively propagated through sword sucker and other types of planting materials like water suckers, bits etc. But the most common limiting factor for area expansion and enhanced productivity is the non availability of clean, true to type and disease free planting material. This situation is aggravated by inherent poor suckering nature of the crop example sabri. Problem may be addressed through tissue culture technology for mass production of planting material. But tissue culture technology for banana still under infancy to fulfill the state total requirements. Hence, a simple, farmers friendly method for mass multiplication has been developed to bridge the gap in supply of healthy planting material. This method generates plantlets from sword suckers as initial explants and farmers can adopt especially to enhance the planting material production and conservation of traditional cultivars right in their back yards.

Principle : Production of more suckers by encouraging lateral buds can be accomplished by suppressing the apical dominance and by providing suitable environment in terms of substrate and exogenous hormones.

Macro Propagation Technic : This technology can use whole suckers, large pieces of parent corms or sword suckers to produce planting material.

At H.R.C corm technic has been followed. Whole corm was utilized for the said purpose.

Production area : At H.R.C, primary hardening structure was selected for initial trial. But the bud emergence was late, management irrigating the bed was a difficult task. During second trial secondary hardening shed and poly house were utilized where good drainage, assured irrigation, proper shade (50% green shade net), facilities were available. Primary bud emergence noticed within 20 days and shoot emergence started within 25-30 days.

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Table showing performance of varietal trial at different month/ year

Sl. No. Date Variety Shade house used Days taken for

bud emergence Substrate

used Cavity treatment with BAP No. of plantlet obtained

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 15/11/14 to 25/03/15

Champa

Spent plant

Primary Hardening House 75 days Saw dust Nil 2 nos.

2 15/11/14 to 17/03/15 Bangla Primary Hardening

House 30 days Saw dust Nil 3 nos.

3 18/02/15 to 07/11/15

Kanchkala

(Cooking

banana) Spent plant

Primary Hardening House 10 days Rubber

saw dust BAP

40 Ppm of 4 ml/cavity 5 nos

4

24/12/15 to 27/12/15,

28/03/16 to 18/05/16

Sabri Spent plant (20

corms)

Secondary Hardening shade 28 days

Rubber saw dust

Vermicompost river

sand neem cake

Done as per recommendation

64 nos from 2 nos bed

5 23/07/16

Petite naime

(10 nos corm) Amritsagar (12 nos) spent

Poly house 22 to 26 days

Rubber saw dust

Neem cake

Vermicompost, well decompos

ed FYM

Nil 4 - 6 shoot bud/ corm 2 – 6 nos

3

6 29/06/16 and 30/06/16

Gaint Cavendish 22

nos spent

Poly house 16 days

Rubber saw dust

Neem cake

Vermicompost, well decompos

ed FYM

Nil 1 - 5 shoot bud

7 10/07/16

Udhayam 11

nos corm spent

Poly house 25 days

Rubber saw dust

Neem cake

Vermicompost, well decompos

ed FYM

Nil 1 – 3 shoot bud

8 12/08/16 Sabri 7

nos spent

Poly house 17-20 days

Rubber saw dust

Neem cake

Vermicompost, well decompos

ed FYM

Nil 2 – 6 shoot bud/ corm

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FIELD PERFORMANCE OF MACRO PROPAGATED PLANTS

Sl.No Variety Date of planting Time taken for shooting Harvesting Bunch Weight No. of hands No of Fingers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 Champa 17/03/15 and 22/04/15 12 month 14 – 16 month 9.550 kg 11 196

2 Bangla 20/02/15 9 months 12 months 7.4 kg 6 80

3 Kanchkala Local cooking type 10/08/15 9 months 12 months 14.7 kg 6 75

4 Behula Cooking type 07/12/15 8 months 11 – 12 months 20 kg 8 105

Behula 07/11/15 7 months 10 months 28 kg 9 120

5 Sabri 25/10/15 8 months 11 months 7 kg 6 87

9 months 12 months 9 kg 6 105

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Material used (for propagating 20 suckers as explants) :

1. Corm from spent plant of germplasm block. 2. Substrate – River sand 6 cum, Saw dust 60 kg, Vermicompost 25 kg, Neem Cake 1kg, Bricks 100 nos. 3. Scalpel, Knife, Bucket, Tubs, Rose can, Fungicides (Carbendazim), Insecticide chloropyriphos, liquid fertilizer (NPK 19:19:19).

Problem : 1. Termite attack observed in saw dust received from locality. 2. Best result without insect attack observe by using rubber saw dust. But requires more frequent irrigation. Procedure : Preparation of the explant

1. Decortication – the field extracted suckers are detopped just above the juncture of the corm and aerial shoot, the remains of the pseudo stem and roots are removed and external layer of the corm is scrapped using a sharp knife.

2. Decapitation – (i) The decorticated corm is washed in clean water. (ii) The apical meristem is removed to a depth of 2 cm leaving a cavity of 2 cm dia in the rhizome. (iii) The rest of the corm is given 6 – 8 transverse cuts and incised upto 0.25 to 0.50 cm depending on the sucker size. (iv) The corms are washed with 0.3% carbendazim solution for 30 min. and air dried in shade for 3 – 4 hr before planting.

3. Planting of decapitated corm and irrigation – (i) Decorticated and decapitated corms are planted in bed. (ii) Saw dust substrate is watered sufficiently and excess water is allowed true drain. (iii) The corms are planted completely buried to a depth of 3 – 5cm followed by light irrigation with a rose can. (iv) Corms should not be exposed after irrigation. It should be covered with a saw dust layer of 3 – 5 cm above the corm. (v) Irrigation frequency depends on the prevailing weather condition, type of saw dust used. (vi) Care should be taken that there is no water stagnation.

4. Bud formation – (i) Depending on the cultivar 2 – 5 primary bud emerge within 17 – 20 days depending upon the planting season. (ii) Bud are allowed to grow till they attain 3 – 4 leaf stage. (iii) Now the buds are ready for secondary decapitation.

5. Secondary decapitation –

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Still attached to the corm, the aerial portion of the plantlet is chopped off and 4 – 6 horizontal cuts are given for the young rhizome. All the decapitated buds are covered with saw dust.

6. Secondary bud formation – As per literature studied, from each primary bud 4 – 5 secondary buds develop within 20 days. But this stage is still under trial process. Because at HRC we received only 2 – 4 secondary buds within 45 days.

7. Separation of plantlet – Each primary bud if left without decapitation for secondary bud formation will produce plantlet with well developed roots. These well developed plantlet can be planted directly to the main field without hardening. In case of sabri we received 64 nos plantlet from 20 nos sabri corm (spent plant) at the end of 4 – 6 months.

Future works to be done –

1. To increase the number of secondary bud formation and thus increasing the number of plantlet production/ corm. 2. Addition of bio fertilizers in the substrate. 3. Application of In-situ decapitation technic.

Conclusion : Macro propagation offers better scope and options for the small and marginal farmers. With minimum training the technology can reach the farmers and banana productivity is expected to rise up.

Field performance trial of Macro propagated SABRI at H.R.C block-1 Variet

y No. of plants

.

Dt of Plantin

g.

Dt of Flowrin

g.

Days taken

for shootin

g.

Dt of harvest

.

Days taken

for maturit

y.

Bunch wt. (in Kg)

Max.

No. of hands/finger

s.

Bunch wt. (in Kg) Min.

No. of hands/finger

s.

No. of fingers

per Kg.

Av. Wt. Of

finger.

Av. Length

of finger without stalk.

Av. Girth

.

Sabri 12 04/02/17 26/10/17 9 month. 21/02/18

To 28/03/1

8

4 to 5 months from

flowering

12.1 kg

9 hands 137 fingers

4.8 kg 6 hands 71 fingers

15. Mediu

m size

107.68 gm

12 cm 12.9

7

8

9

10

11

12