Response of macropropagation of plantain (Musa AAB) to hormonal and mechanical corm manipulation

The cultivation of plantain by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa has always been hampered by the unavailability of sufficient numbers of healthy plantain suckers This is mainly attributed to the low sucker regeneration behavior of the crop due to apical dominance mediated by the plant growth hormone auxin.
In light of this, an improved macropropagation technique in combination with application methods for hormone solutions were evaluated in field trials to enhance shoot proliferation in plantain.
Young plantain suckers were harvested and their corms were pared and leaf sheaths around the collar removed.
The corms were then subjected to vacuum infiltration with various plant-based hormone solutions or 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and then mechanically treated by destroying the meristem with a crosswise incision known as “Plant Issus de Fragments de tige” (PIF). These treatments were compared only PIF-treated corms and untreated controls.
The corms were all planted in a germination bed filled with sterilized sawdust inside a humidity chamber.
Corms treated with autoclaved coconut water (CW_a) through infiltration and later treated with the PIF technique had lateral shoot growth four days earlier than the PIF-only-treated corms.
Interestingly, BAP-treated corms had lateral shoot emergence 1.5 days earlier than PIF. BAP and CW_a produced 38 shoots on average, considerably higher than the other treatments.
Root production was influenced by treatment application with CW_a-treated plants producing more roots than plants treated with the synthetic growth hormone, BAP. Additionally, the corms with this treatment also developed longer shoots which were about 9% longer than shoots obtained from BAP and PIF treatments.

IV International Symposium on Horticulture in Europe – SHE2021

J. Opata, P.-F. Melichar, E. Opoku, M. Hegele, S. Hegele, B.M. Dzomeku, S.K. Darkey, J.N. Wünsche

6-benzylaminopurine, coconut water, infiltration, meristem, phytohormones

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1327.45