Enhancing sucker production In banana and Its effect on the bunch weight of the mother plant

Abstract

Natural sucker production in seven .of the important cultivars of the State was assessed at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 1983-85* Attempts were also made to standardise a treatment/treatment combination that would generate a large number of comrmerciably acceptable suckers in 'Robusta' without much deleterious effects on the mother plants. Among the seven cultivars, ’Nhalipoovan* produced significantly larger number of suckers per mat (12.40 against 3.72 to 5.94). The natural sucker production in 'Robusta' was found to be fairly low (4.59 per mat against 12.40 per mat in 'Nhalipoovan