Stationary liquid medium enhanced micro-propagation of plantain (Musa paradisiaca AAB ‘Agbagba’)

Micro-propagation of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) is a technique for the large-scale production of uniform and healthy planting materials. The technique is expensive, mainly due to costly gelling agents. There is a need for less costly alternatives to enable farmers to get clean planting materials at a cheaper rate. Here we report the use of stationary liquid medium compared to plant tissue culture grade agar (semi-solid) medium for in vitro proliferation of plantain. A total of 20 regenerated plantains (Musa paradisiaca AAB ‘Agbagba’) tissue culture materials were separately cultured in the two media types in a completely randomized design. The experiment was repeated twice. After 21 days in the proliferation media, data were collected on plant height (cm), number of new shoots, number of leaves, number of nodes, the length of the largest leaf per shoot (cm), root length (cm), and number of roots. The results indicated significant (p<0.05) higher mean values for plant height (62%), number of new shoots (53%), number of leaves (49%), number of nodes (50%), the length of the largest leaf per shoot (73%), root length (45%), and number of roots (56%) in the stationary liquid medium compared to the semi-solid medium. Hence, the stationary liquid medium resulted in higher micro-propagated plantain growth parameters compared with the semi-solid medium. There is also no need to spend time removing gelling agents from rooted shoots during the hardening process. A sum of 75 USD ha^‑1 of field is saved on the production of 1666 micro-propagated plantain plantlets using the stationary liquid medium. Hence, the stationary liquid medium is cost-, time-, and labour-saving. It is thus recommended for the rapid in vitro growth and proliferation of plantain shoots. Similar work on other cultivars of Musa spp. is recommended.