Performance of tissue-cultured versus sucker-derived East African highland banana (Musa AAA-EA) under high and low input systems in Uganda

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is a vegatatively propagated crop and the type of planting material is of great importance for the productivity of banana plantations. Traditionally, sucker derived planting materials have been used to establish banana plantations but there is a risk of transmitting pests such as plant-parasitic nematodes with untreated suckers. Tissue cultured banana plants are pest-free and widely grown in commercial dessert banana plantations but are not common agricultural practice under East African conditions. This study aimed at evaluating the agronomic performance and nematode infestation levels of sucker-derived and tissue cultured planting material of the East African highland cooking banana cultivar Nabusa (Musa spp., genome group AAA-EA) over five crop cycles. A field trial was conducted in Central Uganda using tissue culture plants, untreated suckers, pared suckers or pared and hot water treated suckers.All plants were cultivated under mulched or non-mulched conditions to represent high or low input systems, respectively. Mulch in general improved agronomic performance of banana. Type of planting material also influenced plant growth and yield. Tissue culture plants developed faster and yielded higher during the first crop cycle than sucker-derived material but not thereafter. Plant height and bunch weight of untreated suckers was inferior to all other planting material from the third crop cycle onwards. All mulched plants flowered earlier in all crop cycles. Duration from planting to the first harvest was less for tissue-cultured plants, but planting material had no influence on days to harvest from the third crop cycle onwards. Nematode densities were higher in roots from plants grown from untreated suckers than all other planting material, with Radopholus similis consistently recovered in greater densities than Helicotylenchus multicinctus across treatments. Mulching had no influence on nematode densities, root necrosis, number of root base lesions or number of dead roots. Nematode associated damage was higher in plants from untreated suckers but did not differ among tissue-cultured and pared and hot water treated or pared sucker plants. This study demonstrates the benefits of using clean planting material for cooking banana over five consecutive crop cycles and confirms the beneficial effects of mulching. In order to achieve high banana yields over several crop cycles, clean planting material needs to be supported by the application of mulch. However, this study shows that the application of mulch will not offset the detrimental effects of plant parasitic nematode-infected sucker planting material.