About Tissue Culture
The low banana productivity can be attributed to unavailability of clean planting materials.
Pests and disease are a major challenge to banana production, causing significant losses in yields and quality.
Most farmers recycle their own planting materials which are mostly diseased and pest infested have low vigour lack uniformity in size an age.
This necessitates the adoption of technologies that provide clean planting materials to increase banana yield and quality.
Tissue culture banana seedlings –
These are banana plantlets that are pest and disease free and are produced under controlled conditions.
The plantlets are sourced from registered nurseries that are known to sell Tissue culture seedlings e.g. KARLO,JKUAT and some private companies eg Aberdare Technologies,etc
Advantages of planting tissue culture bananas.
- The planting material produced is free from pest and disease
- Tissue culture provides a method of rapidly multiplying clean planting material
- High vigour and good chances of high survival rates after establishment.
- Uniformity in establishment and production is achieved.
- The yields are higher.
Easy transportation of new varieties is made possible.
Hardening Nursery
Seedlings are hardened in certified nurseries.
A hardening nursery is a structure where plantlets from the TC laboratory are kept to enable them to adjust to the outside environment in preparation for field planting.
Careful nursing of the plantlets protecting them from harsh field conditions in the early stages of growth.
The following should be considered when siting a hardening nursery.
• Proximity to transport network.
• Security from wild and domestic damage.
• Site should be away from harsh wind conditions.
• Good drainage.
In an area free of pest disease and nematodes
Hardening shed requirements
Recommended Shade net, 8ft Posts, Door, Timber, Polythene sheet, Nails, soil sterilization drums, Metal pipe, 1 ton ballast, Water tank,.
Tools and equipment needed in a hardening Nursery
Potting bags , Poly sheets ,Jembes, , Fork jembes, Spade , Rakes , Buckets , Wheel barrows , Watering cans ,Horse pipes, soil sterilization equipment.
Other input necessary in the nursery is forest soil, fertilizers and disinfectant,
Soil mixtures
The soil should comprise of forest soil plus any of the following; gravel, rice husks, sawdust, wood shavings, wood bark, or sand at a ratio of 6 parts to 1 part.
The different components are measured and then mixed thoroughly using a shovel.
Soil sterilization
This involves heating soil with a steam-air mixture. Two or more drums are required, an upright drum filled with moist soil mixture and a horizontal one half-filled with water which is then heated at 60-700 C. The steam produced sterilizes the soil and then emerges through the top lid after which a thirty minutes (30) sterilization period is observed.
It is important to sterilize soil to kill harmful organisms such as soil-borne fungal diseases, nematodes and weeds.
The sterilized soil is removed and when cooled, covered to avoid contamination ready and put in the poly bags ready for planting the TC bananas Plantlets
Simple soil sterilizing unit hardening structure capacity 10,000 seedlings
Cost of Establishing a simple Hardening Nursery.
This can be made cheaply using locally available materials
Capacity: About 2,000 plantlets
Size 4m (width) x7m (length) x8m (height)
Item | Price per Unit | Total (KSH |
Shade net74m2 | 54.00/m2 | 3,996 |
1Roll chain link wire | 5,000 | 5,000 |
8 Posts, 1 Door, Timber, 4 kg Nails, 1 Metal pipe, 2 Elbows, 1 union | 9440 | |
2 soil sterilization drums, 1 drum for water storage, 1 hosepipe, 2 watering can, | 8100 | |
1 ton Ballast | 3000 | |
2000 poly bags, 10m polythene sheet | 4,500 | |
Water tank | 25,000 | |
Labour | 5,000 | |
Contingencies 10% | 6,403 | |
Total cost | 70,439 |
Price of buying Tc banana plantlets 2,000×80=160,000
Price of ready TC banana seedling 2000×130=260,000
Varieties,
Preferred varieties should be prioritized based on the following aspects.
Height, use, disease tolerance, drought tolerance, high yield and market preference.
Some of the varieties include, Valery,Giant and Giant Cavendish , Fhia 17&23,Lacatan,Ngombe,Williams,etc
Hardening of preferred varieties enhances adoption of the tissue culture technology by the farmers.
Management in the nursery
- Follow a recommended fertilizer program or regularly spray with foliar feed containing micronutrients and nitrogen.
- A high standard of hygiene is necessary to reduce the risk of damage by pest or disease.
- Should be kept clean and free from weeds.
- Regular watering of the seedlings.
- Pests and diseases should be controlled immediately they are spotted.
- Seedlings should be arranged in neat rows with clear paths for walking and transportation.
- Varieties should be separated and labeled accordingly, showing date of transplanting and number of seedlings for ease of marketing.
- Regularly Scout for pest or diseases on the young plantlets and apply control measures on need basi
Record keeping
Proper record keeping at all stages in the hardening is important to ensure profitability and enhance traceability.
These include;
- Source of planting materials.
- Varieties (proper labeling in the nursery).
- Planting records.
- Customer inventory.
- Financial /transaction records
Nursery records are also important in the following ways
- Regulate operations and keep track of activities and expenses.
- Establish the history of the business.
- To know the performance of business. It enables one to know when business is making loss or profit.
- Helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the business.
- Helps manage changes and improvements in the business.
- Will help you plan to meet financial commitments such as paying creditors.
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