Agronomic evaluation of new Cavendish banana cultivars for growing in different protected cultivation areas in Turkey

Protected cultivation (in greenhouses) is an effective cropping system to produce bananas in Turkey and much more profitable than open-field conditions. ‘Grand Nain’ is the most popular cultivar grown in greenhouses in Turkey, but it may be possible to increase yield and fruit quality, and subsequently grower incomes, by testing new cultivars. The objective of this study was to evaluate in subtropical conditions the performance of five new Cavendish cultivars (‘CV 902’, ‘Jobo, MA13’, ‘Williams’ and ‘MA13’) previously selected in open-field tropical conditions, compared to ‘Grand Nain’ (control). All new Cavendish cultivars were introduced in Turkey from VITROPIC SA, France. All cultivars were produced by in vitro micropropagation of meristems, and then deflasked and grown in nurseries to 25 cm for planting. The trials were undertaken in three different locations (Alanya, Anamur and Bozyazı, Turkey) in greenhouses. Various parameters were recorded over two crop cycles including: stem circumference, stem height, total leaf number, bunch stem circumference, number of hands and finger per bunch, finger length and circumference at harvest and bunch weight. The Bozyazı location showed better performance in many aspects of plant growth compared to the other two sites. ‘Williams’ had on average the highest pseudostem circumference and height but also the highest bunch weight (50.27 kg). The bunch weight of ‘MA13’ and ‘CV 902’ was 47.65 and 42.66 kg, respectively, whereas the control (‘Grand Nain’) and ‘Jobo’ had a lower bunch weight. ‘Williams’, ‘MA13’ and ‘CV 902’ were more productive than ‘Grand Nain’ in greenhouse conditions. In addition, no somaclonal variations were observed in any of the three experimental locations. These results suggest that the new selections have potential to provide higher yields in Turkey in protected cultivation, providing higher returns to growers, compared to local selections.