Use of low cost resources for banana micropropagation

The conventional laboratory procedure for micropropagation of different crops including banana needs high cost resource utilization. The invention of reliable and cost effective tissue culture methods without compromising on quality has now been addressed. The experiment was conducted with this outlook on banana tissue culture where in distilled water was substituted by normal tap water; laboratory grade sucrose was substituted by table sugar and agar was substituted by isabgol in the common MS multiplication medium. In case of root initiating MS medium, in addition to the above substitutions, saw dust, groundnut husk, rice husk, coir pith and coconut fibre were used in place of agar. The time required for the initiation of multiple shoots was more or less similar in each treatment, however number of multiple shoots was found higher in the medium where only isabgol substituted agar, followed by the medium where both isabgol and tap water substituted agar and distilled water, respectively. When laboratory grade sucrose was substituted by table sugar, initial vitrification was noticed. Among the root promoting media, initiation of roots was found earlier when coconut fibre was used. Root development was better in both the media containing coconut fibre and isabgol. Plantlets raised on these two media also responded well to hardening.