ABSTRACT
Brazil is the sixth largest producer of banana, however traditional practices of banana propagation fall short when it intends to introduce a uniform banana, with high yield potential and pathogen-free. This research aimed to evaluate the vegetative growth and production of banana 'Prata Anã' derived from conventional seedlings (whole rhizome) of different sizes (up to 1000g, 1001 to 2000g, 2001 to 3000g, 3001 to 4000g, 4001 to 5000g, and more than 5000g) and in vitro micropropagation, during the first and second production cycles. The experimental design was completely randomised, with a variable number of repetitions. Analysis of variance was performed using regression equations for the vegetative data and Tukey test at 5% of probability for productive data. Plants originating from rhizomes with weight of less than 1000g, between 1001g and 2000 and micropropagated resulted in plants with more vegetative vigor, in the first cycle. In the second cycle, the number of leaves, height and diameter of the pseudostem tends to equalize for different classes of plants assessed. In the first production cycle, periods between planting and floral anthesis and between planting and harvesting were inversely proportional to the size of conventional seedlings; the periods for micropropagated plants were similar to the conventional seedlings of greater weight. There was no difference in the number of hands and fingers and bunch weight between different classes of seedlings. The differences between the amount of time from the planting to flowering and until harvest between different classes of seedlings tend to disappear from the first to the second cycle. Thus, the propagation of the banana with seedlings weight of less than 2000g or micropropagated is preferable, however to use any kind of seedlings can be planted in various plots according to the size.
Key words:
spp; rhizome; micropropagation
