phyllosilicate:
Two and a half months old , growing vigorously.

jobzytravels:
A Local farmer told me that a plantain sucker produces their best bunch at first harvest and the size of bunches they produce after that becomes smaller and smaller and also the lifeline of a plantain farm is 3 years. How true is this please?

Agritech:


It might be true if the suckers used in planting was infested with pests such as nematodes and beetles. The parasitic pressure increases year after year and the bunches becomes progressively smaller.

That's why one must plant with clean planting materials, ie suckers free from pest and diseases. One can plant tissue culture suckers or macropragated suckers from a nursery that follows the proper phytosanitary procedure.

If one must plant normal suckers, one must ensure that they are pared, ie the root and the outer part peeled as yam is peeled. Nematodes mostly reside in the roots and outer part of the corm. One must ensure that the paring isn't done in the new farm as one would be transferring the pest to the farm. After that, the suckers should be deeped into boiling water for exactly 30 seconds. The heat would kill any left over nematodes and beetles.

If clean planting materials are used, like Lesgupnigeria said they won't become smaller provided the plantation is well taken care of.


My reply to a post early this year.

Agritech:

Impressive, macropropagation is the way forward.

phyllosilicate:
What IITA and CARBAB say about macropropagated suckers:

" Farmers usually depend on natural regeneration of plantain for the supply of planting materials. This is a very slow process that often produces small numbers of planting materials that are usually contaminated by various soil pathogens such as nematodes and shortens the lifetime of plantation to only one or two cycles of cultivation, beyond which lodging occurs. IITA has developed techniques for the rapid multiplication of healthy planting materials. " IITA Ibadan.

"The cultivation of plantain is underexploited due to the inadequate provision of good quality propagation materials. The negative influence of parasites also leads to the use of poor quality suckers, resulting in growth cycle of only two years. The return on effort put in by farmers is therefore unsatisfactory, leading to further discouragement among plantain growers.
Fortunately, a number of intensive production techniques have been developed, including in vitro cultivation, typically used in research centres and macropropagation using the plantlet from stem fragments." (African Centre for Banana and Plantain Research, Duala Cameron)

The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the pleasure of low price have been forgotten- Thomas Ruskin

0taPiaPia:
The problem is that you guys insist people must buy up to a thousand when he can only afford a few based on land availability and other factors.

phyllosilicate:
Put your mind at rest, get assured of bumper harvest go macropropagated.



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