Effect of Number of Suckers per Hill on Growth and Yield of Banana cv. Malbhog (AAB) in Ratoon Crop

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most important staple food and starchy fruit crops of the world and India ranks first in both area and production in world scenario. Banana is considered to be the most nutritious fruit available though out the year. Botanically, banana is a monocotyledonous, monocarpic, herbaceous plant belonging to the section Eumusa under the family Musaceae (Purseglove, 1976). Though area under banana production has been increasing in India but the total production, productivity and quality of the fruits have been found to be in reducing trend. This might be due to poor management of suckers, spacing, fertilization, irrigation, pests and diseases. In recent years, more emphasis is being given to higher productivity of banana per unit area with better quality by adopting various means. One of such methods is high density planting which depends on variety, method of cultivation, the height and spread of banana plant. Among the different cultural practices, desuckering is one of the important practices which influence the size of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 10 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com