A Method for Prolonging Culturing Time of Banana Seedling in Nursery Shed

Banana industry plays important roles in the economics of southern China, where is always blown by typhoon in summer and autumn. After typhoon passed through, fresh banana seedlings are often required. That is a problem for companies on culturing banana seedling, since culturing banana seedlings takes about four months and typhoon cannot be predicted so early. If the growth of banana seedlings can be slowed down and the seedlings can be cultured in nursery shed for more time, this problem will be solved. In this research, seven treatments (paclobutrazol, diniconazole, paclobutrazol + brassins, paclobutrazol + diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate, diniconazole + brassins, diniconazole + diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate, chlormequat chloride) were performed on banana seedlings and the growth was measured. Results showed that in all of the treatments, the values of plant height, leaf length, pseudostem diameters, root length, root weight, root volume, fresh weight of above-ground tissues and fresh weight of seedlings were significantly less than those corresponding values of control. The reducing powers of roots of seedlings sprayed with paclobutrazol and paclobutrazol + diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate were remarkably higher than those of seedlings treated with water. Total chlorophyll content in leaves of seedlings sprayed with paclobutrazol was remarkably higher than that of seedlings treated with water. Total chlorophyll contents in leaves of seedlings treated with paclobutrazol + diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate and chlormequat chloride were lower than those of control. For delaying the growth of banana seedlings, chlormequat chloride was the best among the seven treatments. The mechanism might be that the enzyme CPP-synthase in seedlings was inhibited by chlormequat chloride.