In vitro Propagation of Banana (Musa spp.) cv. Neypoovan through Male Bud Culture

Neypoovan is an important banana cultivar widely cultivated in South India. The demand for planting material of this cultivar is huge and tissue-cultured plantlets are not available owing to its inherent problems in the initial establishment of the culture and slow rate of multiplication by using shoot tips as explant. The present study investigated on direct regeneration and mass multiplication of the banana cultivar Neypoovan (AB) through In vitro male bud culture. The experiment which was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani explored both flower buds and floral hands as explants. The establishment media evaluated involved basal MS as control and 15 hormone treatments involving different levels of BA (2, 4 and 6 mgL−1), TDZ (0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 mgL−1), kinetin (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mgL−1), combination of BA (2, 4 and 6 mgL−1) with kinetin (1.0 mgL−1) and combination of BA (2, 4 and 6 mgL−1) with NAA (1.0 mgL−1). Floral hands in 4 mgL−1 BA + 1mgL−1 NAA achieved higher culture establishment percentage (100) and lesser number of days for establishment (26.78 days) when compared to whole buds. Standardization of shoot multiplication involved three levels of BA viz., 2, 4 and 6 mgL−1 in standard MS solid media. The treatment with 4 mgL−1 BA registered the least number of days to shoot initiation (96.45 days) and significantly higher number of shoots per culture (9.73). The study involved different rooting media viz., MS, MS + 250 mg charcoal, MS + 1mgL−1 NAA and MS + 0.5mgL−1 NAA. Days to root initiation was least in full MS (5.25 days) which also recorded the highest root length (10.23 cm). The present investigation highlighted the possibility of using floral hands as a promising explants type for direct regeneration of banana cv. Neypoovan.