Growth, flowering and yield potential of tissue culture banana (Musa AAB cv. Nendran)

Abstract

The present experiment in split-split plot technique was laid out at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 1991-1993 to evaluate the growth, flowering and yield potential of tissue culture plants of Nendran banana Musa (AAB group) compared to plants from suckers. The initial establishment and early growth phase of tissue culture plants were comparable with that of the suckers. But their growth rate become faster during the later stages and ultimately they recorded an increase of 6.7 per cent in height, 11.92 per cent in girth and 3.35 leaves more than the plants from suckers. They showed less variability in time taken for flowering and recorded an increase in yield of 25.63 per cent compared to plants from suckers. The attributes responsible for the increase in yield were length of bunch, number of fingers and length and girth of finger.