What are tissue culture bananas and why are they best suited for Kenyan farmers

Bananas are the fruits which now considered one of Kenya’s main staple foods staple after maize, rice and wheat. Different communities all over the country consume bananas in one way or the other. It is one of the world's largest herb which is not a tree. The fruit type of banana is also considered a berry.

A typical banana plant has 8 to 30 leaves that range from 12 feet long and 2 feet wide. Bananas are also known to be rich in a number of vitamins and minerals these includes vitamin A, B, C and G.

Despite the significant commercial value of the crop, the main production constrain is the availability of reliable and safe planting material. Banana is a crop that has been for many years conventionally propagated by vegetative means by Kenyan farmers, but there are several short comings in this normal cultivation of banana which require to be addressed to meet the market demands.

Due to a widespread problem of viral diseases ravaging bananas around Kenya, in vitro or tissue culture bananas propagation has been used by Kenyan researchers to produce disease free growing materials. Tissue culture is the modern science of multiplying clean disease-free planting materials of different crops and you have many identical copies of the same variety without changing the taste and any other physical attribute of the plant.

This tissue culture work is done in agricultural laboratories and then the plants are raised in nursery beds where farmers can buy them ready for planting. These plants are genetically uniform, superior, disease free and high yielding. This leads to increased economic benefits per unit area of land.

Why tissue culture?

The traditional banana propagation method using suckers has proven to be inefficient and has constantly provided lower quality bananas compared to tissue culture, these may be caused by a variety of reasons. Suckers generally may be infected with some pathogens and nematodes. Similarly, due to the variation in age and size of sucker the crop is not uniform, harvesting is prolonged and management becomes difficult.

Problems in conventional banana farming:-

The traditional banana farming has always encountered various problems as we have listed below

• Natural regeneration of cultivated bananas through vegetative means is very slow due to hormone dominance of the mother plant.
• A plant may produce only 5-20 suckers during its life time of 12-14 months.
• Several good bits, each with a centrally placed germinating eye can be cut from an un-bunched rhizome after trimming the roots.
• Selection of appropriate mother plant for raising new propagules often hard but very crucial.
• Non-availability of disease free uniform suckers,
• High pathogen (virus and nematode) attack at seedling stage
• High mortality in the field during establishment due to excessive flood irrigation,
• Long gestation period and Low yield.
• Oxidative browning of the wounded tissues and low number of shoots produce per explant

The reasons behind all these problems can be attributed to the non-availability of disease free quality planting material and lack of hi-tech farming awareness among the growers. Mass propagation of disease-free high yielding clones to produce consistently uniform and true to type plants by tissue culture is the only alternative for banana plantations.

Tissue culture banana technology

Tissue culture is the current technology that is applied for mass production of superior grade planting material for most of the crops. It is widely used to create clone plants of mother plant. This technology utilizes any part of the plant leaf, stem, root suckers, etc. for regeneration of a complete whole plant.

The process consists of some basic steps:

1. Selection of mother plants,
2. Culture Initiation,
3. Multiplication of shoots initiated,
4. Rooting of shoots,
5. Primary Hardening in green houses
6. Secondary Hardening in shade houses
7. Field transfer of tissue cultured plants.

Strict adherence to aseptic standards and micro-climatic conditions and care during the hardening process alone can ensure the success of your tissue culture bananas.

Advantages of tissue culture raised banana:-

The benefit of tissue- cultured plants is that they are uniform, so they grow at the same pace and are ready to harvest at the same time. It makes management of the plantation that much easier

1. True to the type of mother plant.
2. Better establishment in the field due to accelerated growth and well developed root system for better absorption of nutrients.
3. Infection free planting material (Pest free, Disease free and Virus free).
4. Uniform growth of all the plants unlike plants cultivated using suckers. So minimum number of harvests that reduces the cost and scope for getting a uniform ratoon crop.
5. Optimal yield is ensured following proper cultural practices.
6. Shorter harvesting period (Earlier maturity of crop) enables flexibility in accordance with planting season and marketing demand. Because of shorter crop duration of crop, two successive ratoons are possible with reduced cost of cultivation and increased profits.
7. Large quantities of healthy and uniform plants can be supplied at a time round the year.
8. 95 to 98% plants bear bunches.
9. High benefit to cost ratio ensure good profits.

Characteristics

Conventional banana propagation through suckers

Tissue Culture Banana

Yield & Quality

Low

High

Variety

Mixed

True to type

Flowering

Uneven

Synchronous

Harvesting

16-18 months

12-13 months

Market price

Lower

Higher

Disease

No guarantee

Free from all diseases when supplied

De’nettols seedlings offers the best quality tissue culture banana plants, carefully grown from high quality seeds and adhering to the recommended and required tissue culture practices to ensure the success and good returns on investment. We also provide expert advice on how you can replicate our success in your own farm. Contact us today or visit our tree nursery to get more information.

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