The response of banana ('Dwarf Cavendish') tissue cultured plantlets to different nitrogen sources.

摘要

The banana (Musa spp.) is a very important fruit crop world wide grown in the tropics from suckers and has particular nitrogen (N) requirements for its growth, development and maturation depending on soil type and environmental conditions. Despite this importance there is not much work done on effect of N fertilizer sources on growth and development of new disease free tissue cultured (TC) banana plantlets. Therefore this study was carried out to find the response of banana TC plantlets to different nitrogen sources. Three nitrogen sources were used: ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃), ammonium sulphate [(NH₄)₂SO₄] and urea [CO(NH₂)₂] as fertilizers and the control of 5.1.5 (46). The results of this experiment showed that ammonium nitrate gave a superior response at 4 weeks after treatment (WAT) application compared with urea and ammonium sulphate in terms of growth parameters measured. Ammonium sulphate and urea were not significantly (P>0.05) different from each other in terms of their effect on plant growth. Growth parameters measured were plant height, stem girth, leaf number, width, area and leaf colour. After a period of 6 weeks WAT application there were significant differences in the magnitude of growth parameters among treatments. In terms of growth promotion the best N fertilizer source to use under conditions of this study for TC banana plants was ammonium nitrate followed in decreasing order by urea, ammonium sulphate and lastly the control of 5.1.5 (46).