Abstract:
Bananas are multipurpose fruit crops which has great socio-economic importance in the world and there is a very high demand of disease free banana planting material by small and large scale farmers in Ethiopia. However, Conventional propagation methods are in general inefficient due to their low propagation rate, time consuming and disease dissemination. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to develop a proper and reproducible protocol for in vitro propagation of banana cv. Giant Cavendish using shoot tip explants. The effects of different concentrations and combinations of PGR’s on shoot initiation, multiplication and rooting were conducted using CRD design. For shoot initiation, shoot tip explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/l BAP. Similarly, MS medium supplemented with BAP at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 mg/l in combination with IBA at 0.25 and 0.50 mg/l were used for shoot multiplication. ½ MS medium augmented with IBA at 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 mg/l were used for root induction. For control treatment, MS medium without growth hormones were used for shoot initiation and multiplication while ½ MS medium without growth hormones were used for root induction. Finally, hardening of the in vitro derived plantlets were carried out in green house both in the primary and secondary acclimatization stages. For shoot initiation, the highest shoot initiation percent (93.40%), highest mean number of shoots per explant (4.67) and lesser day for shoot induction (11.00) was found better on MS + 1.0 mg/l BAP. Likewise, highest shooting percent (92.60%), maximum mean number of shoots (7.67) and highest shoot length ( 5.27 cm) was found on MS + 1.5 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l IBA for shoot multiplication. The highest rooting percent (93.40%), maximum root number per plantlet (7.67) and highest root length (11.00 cm) were found better on half MS medium + 2.0 mg/l IBA. The survival rate of plantlets were 96.00% in cocopeat substrate in primary acclimatization and 97.92% in forest soil, sand and manure substrates in 3:2:1 ratio in secondary acclimatization.