ABSTRACT
The main production constrain is the availability of reliable and safe planting material. Planting materials obtained through conventional methods do not meet the increasing demand for planting and they are of poor quality. Tissue culture approach can solve these problems but it is yet to benefit majority of small scale farmers because of the high costs and sophisticated skills associated with the technology. Therefore, to increase banana production in small scale systems, there is a need for affordable and simple technique for seedling production. Macro propagation is one such technique and can improve banana production if adopted. In view of these characteristics, the effect of the humidifier and types of growth enhancer were evaluated using factorial in completely randomized design. The main plots consisted of types of humidifier with 2 levels: A1=with misting system, A2=without and for sub plots different growth enhancer was applied at 3 levels: B0=Control, B1=Benzyl Amino Purine at 1.5mg/L and B2= Naphthalene acetic acid at 0.93g/L. Result showed that humidifier led to a significant increase (p<0.01) in all the growth parameter tested during the 1st and 2nd cycle. On the other hand, growth enhancer affects significantly the number of days to emergence (p<0.01) First Generation Shoots (FGS), Second Generation Shoots (SGS), number of shoots emerged (p<0.01) (FGS, SGS), shoot collar diameter emergence (p<0.01) (FGS), (p<0.05) (SGS) and total leaf area (p<0.05) (FGS), (p<0.01) (SGS). However, no significant effect was observed on the interaction of the two factors for FGS but interaction of factors during SGS affect significantly the number of days to emerge (P ≤ 0.05), number of shoots emerged (P ≤ 0.01) and total leaf area (P ≤ 0.05). Interaction of factors did not significantly affect the shoot collar diameter.
