A novel in vitro approach for enhanced production of Musa paradisiaca L. (cv. Nendran) using split sucker explants.

Banana cultivar Nendran is one of the most important staple fruit crops in tropical and subtropical countries and it also plays an important role in the local economics. A novel method was developed for the large scale multiplication of plants with split segments of young sucker explants cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) (1962) solid medium supplemented with BAP (1.0-6.0 mg/L) .Upon comparing the number of shoot bud induction between intact sucker and split sucker explants, it was recorded that 13.70±2.49 shoot buds were initiated in split segments against 4.20 ± 1.13 shoot buds in intact sucker explants in a period of four weeks. Among the split segments tested sucker split in to four symmetrical pieces produced maximum number of shoots .The shoots so emanated from both the explants were split longitudinally and sub cultured at every three week intervals to obtained 12.70 ±2.58 (2.69±0.39cm) shoots from intact and 48.70±5.23 (4.43±0.44cm) shoots from split suckers respectively in the first subculture in media contain 5mg/L BAP. Number of shoots produced from intact as well as split sucker explants was also investigated against the number of subcultures. It was also noticed that more than 9 fold increase in shoot bud formation in sub cultured shoots of split explants in lower concentration of BAP (2.0mg/L) than the number of shoots in sub cultured shoots of intact sucker explants in media with high concentration of BAP (5mg/L). It was also estimated that production of approximately 1540 plants was possible from a single split explant against 320 plants from the split segments of intact sucker explants after three subcultures. The shoots so obtained were rooted in media supplemented with 1.0 mg/L IBA were deflasked and established in polythene bags filled with coarse sand and soil (1:1) mixture under shade net house with adequate watering to obtained more than 98% survival. Plants obtained from different explants sources along with conventional suckers were planted and studied the field performance. The growth and yield of plants between different sources were not significantly varied from each other. The results obtain in the present investigation illustrated that split sucker explants in media augmented with low concentration of BAP (2.0 mg/L) for three subcultures leading