ऊतक संर्वधन के उपयोग द्वारा केले की खेती

Banana (Musa spp.) is believed to have originated in South Eastern Asia with India as one of the centres of origin apart from Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia. Bananas are believed to have been the world first cultivated fruit. Banana ranks first in production and second in area among the fruits grown in India.

Banana is one of the popular fruits in India because of its low cost and free availability. Banana provides a balanced diet than other fruits. Banana is composed of mainly water and carbohydrates which provides energy (104 Cal. Per 100 g.) It is rich in Minerals, Phosphorus and Calcium.

The major problem however faced in the banana growing areas is the shortage of uniform and disease free planting materials, which is due to the vegetative mode of propagation of the plant (through side sucker) at a slow pace in conventional cultivation

This difficulty can be addressed by employing the commercial tissue culture technology for mass production of the popular banana varieties.

Tissue culture in banana

Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as micro-propagation.

This tissue culture technology can also be utilized for conservation and multiplication (as per requirement) of the other locally important, elite, endangered and ornamental banana varieties.

Banana plants produced through tissue culture not only reduce the risk of disease movement from one field to the other, but high yielding varieties propagated through tissue culture also increase overall production and improve national economy.

Why tissue culture so popular in banana

Tissue culture technique in banana propagation eliminates most of these pests and reduce infestation in new plantation thus contributes to higher yields and production. Tissue cultured plants had higher total number of leaves, functional leaves, stem circumference and height at three months interval than conventional suckers.

They also flowers and yields bigger bunches than conventional suckers. Conventionally, one banana plant produces only five to ten suckers in a year depending on the variety. Through tissue culture large quantities of clean banana plantlets are produced within a short period. Tissue-cultured banana include high field establishment rate, uniformity in growth ensuring synchronized harvesting, and high production.

Tissue cultured plants have more functional green leaves at planting and therefore this enables them to manufacture their own food, while conventional suckers use the food stored in the corm to start the initial growth. The fast vegetative growth of tissue cultured plants was reflected in their early flowering in the plant crop and the more number of leaves at flowering.

Bunch weight of conventional suckers started to decrease from the fifth cycle, it increased with tissue-cultured plants. Hence, using of tissue cultured plants is most income generative and easy adoptive technology than the conventional suckers.

Requirments:

• Infrastructure: A tissue culture laboratory, a poly- house facility for weaning tissue culture plantlets.
• Equipment: Standard glass ware, tissue culture racks, clean-air bench, autoclave, pH meter, weighing balances, surgical-ware etc.
• Chemicals: All the ingredients of Murashige and Skoog basal medium, sucrose, growth hormones, gelling agents etc.
• Manpower: Skilled technicians (trained in a tissue culture laboratory) for laboratory work and supporting staff & workers.

Collection of suckers

1. Different stages of banana keikis (peepers, sword, or maiden suckers) about 1–3 ft (40–100 cm) tall that are free of BBTV symptoms can be collected for tissue culture.
2. Separate the desired keiki from the main stem without cracking the corm of the keiki. Collect at least two suckers from each plant source, one for micro-propagation and the other for a nursery farm for future keiki needs.
3. Banana suckers selected are excised to obtain approximately 4 inches (10 cm) of inner pseudostem tissue containing the banana meristem, as described in detail in Fig. 8-2. To ensure the plant is BBTV-free, it is recommended to collect a newly unfolded banana leaf from the keiki and submit it to a plant disease diagnostic laboratory such as the Agriculture Diagnostic Service Center (ADSC) at the College of Tropical of Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) to check for BBTV.

General steps involved

The banana tissue culture process involves:

Preparing tissue-cultured banana plantlets for field planting

1. Prior to planting tissue-cultured banana plantlets into soil, the seedlings need to be hardened or acclimatized to the external environment. This can be done by transferring them to a liquid medium (without agar), or exposing them to partial sunlight in the tissue-culture vessel under greenhouse conditions for a few days.
2. Any agar medium adhering to the tissue-cultured plantlets should be gently washed off, after which they are ready to be planted into potting media in a nursery.
3. Choose a potting mix with good moisture-holding and drainage characteristics, for example 2 parts Sunshine Pro mix, 1 part perlite, and 3 parts medium- to coarse-grade vermiculite. Keeping the media moist to maintaining the health of the tissue-cultured seedlings.
4. Fertilize with slow-release or liquid fertilizer.
5. Place banana seedlings in a partially shaded area (50% shade) for 2 weeks before exposing them to full sunlight.
6. Plants should be placed in a BBTV-free and banana aphid-free area. Other aphids, whiteflies, and spider mites are commonly found on banana plants in greenhouses and clustered nurseries, and these should be managed by employing insecticide when populations are high. However, after the plants are transplanted into the field, these pests are typically not problematic.
7. The full acclimatization process should take about 2 months, or until seedlings reach about 8 inches or taller, depending on variety, before field planting.
8. If using tissue-cultured banana to replace plants in a BBTV-infected field, an aggressive scouting program for BBTV should be in place. This includes inspecting young plants every 5 days, as new leaves unfold every 5 days.
9. The length of time to harvest after transplanting tissue-cultured banana depends on the cultivar. In general, ‘Dwarf Apple’ bananas may be harvestable within 9–10 months after transplanting into the field.

Climates required for banana cultivation

Banana is strictly a tropical plant however it is also grown in subtropical to humid climates. The optimum temperature required for bananas is between 25 to 30°C, with upper and lower limits of about 40° and l0°C respectively. For the optimum growth of the banana plant, the area should have a monthly rainfall of 20-22 mm. distributed evenly.

Advantages of tissue culture banana

• They are disease free and therefore grow faster and vigorously.
• They mature earlier, and the yield is more than conventional ones.
• Large numbers can be produced in a relatively short time occupying a relatively small space.
• Through banana tissue culture, development of new genotypes resistant to pests and diseases is possible. This can be extended to improved quality and storability.
• Banana tissue culture can facilitate safe international exchange of banana germplasm from one country to another in a closed sterile environment free of diseases.
• There is a possibility of incorporating vaccines of common diseases in banana, as it is popular fruit throughout the world.

Disadvantages of tissue cultured banana

• The tissue cultured banana is expensive and so it is not reachable to the normal man.
• For the production of tissue cultured banana, it needs labour intensively.

Authors

¹Sakshi Shastri and ²Ankit Kumar Pandey

¹Department of Agril. Extension, Indira Gandhi KrishiVishwavidyalay, Raipur

²Department of Horticulture (Fruit & Fruit Technology), BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur-813 210 (Bihar) 

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