RESPONSE OF TWENTY MUSA CULTIVARS TO IN VIVO MACRO-PROPAGATION

ABSTRACT

One of the constraints to banana and plantain production is the low multiplication ratio of suckers obtained from natural regeneration. Fortunately, in vivo macro-propagation could be use to produce large number of healthy plantlets in a short time. The response of twenty Musa cultivars to in vivo macro-propagation was evaluated in the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria from December, 2020 to May, 2021. Two sword suckers of each Musa cultivar were used per experimental unit. The corms of each cultivar were cut through to remove apical dominance and were treated with neem leave extract and fungicide, then allowed to air dry for 72 hours under a shade. This was followed by planting the corms of each cultivar (after making several cross cuts) in high humidity plastic propagators. The experiment was laid in complete randomised design (CRD) with three replications. Results indicated that there was significant difference among Musa cultivars in days to first sprouting and number of shoots per corm. MS01PT, MS04BA, HEX Agbagba PT and CRBP-39 sprouted earlier. MS05PT and MS12PT produced more plantlets than others. The average weight of corm had no significant effects on the number of plantlets obtained. However, evidence from the study showed that no cultivar prove difficult in macro-propagation, using either local or improved varieties of banana and plantain.