Sucker proliferation potential of enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) landraces corm splits in vivo macro propagation under lath house conditions in Hawassa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Enset is a perennial drought tolerant food and livelihood security crop of Ethiopia, traditionally propagated vegetatively from selected landraces (genotypes). However, the available information for optimization of enset propagation packages is not adequate to allow economically good quality planting materials in a short time. This experiment was invigorated to explore the performance of variable enset landrace rhizome 1/8th splits in vivo macro propagation on sucker proliferation potential under lath house. Six enset landraces were selected for a two-year repeated experiment, parent rhizomes were uprooted and apical buds were removed. Subsequently, every parent rhizomes were cut in to an eighth, sun exposed for 48 hours under the lath house to heal cut wounds. Arranged in complete randomized design with three replications, then buried in soil media mix in circular fashion in the hole, managed till sucker harvest. Data on days to 50% emergence, regeneration percentage, number of suckers per rhizome split, green leaf number, leaf length and width, pseudostem height and circumference, as well as sucker height were recorded. The data were evaluated using SAS statistical program Version 9.4. The result revealed that all the parameters considered were significantly affected by the variation of enset landraces. The number of sucker produced per rhizome split was significantly (p < 0.001) affected by the enset landraces parent rhizome. The average number of suckers produced per rhizome split ranged from 45 to 9.87 shoots per com. The highest shoot numbers (45 per rhizome split) were recorded on landrace ‘Midasho’, whereas the lowest numbers of suckers (9.87) were obtained on landrace ‘Ado’. Generally, this study results showed that the use of 1/8th parent rhizome splits in vivo macro propagation under the lath house technique rapidly regenerates large quantities of planting materials with genotype purity efficiently in a short time.