Evaluation of local and introduced banana cultivars against strong wind damage in the Philippines

Introduced and local cultivars were established in replicated plots at the experimental field of the University of the Philippines at Los Ba├▒os, Philippines. Los Ba├▒os is located in Luzon island where occurrence of typhoon is common, causing damages to banana crops. The test cultivars included 8 varieties from the International Musa Testing Program (IMTP) of Bioversity International, and 9 Philippine popular local cultivars. A dwarf variety from Thailand, Kluai Namwa, was also included. Cultivar selection was based on their importance as dessert as well as cooking types. Data on agronomic traits such as plant height, stem girth, number of leaves and maturity were collected. Recurrent typhoon at the experimental location provided an opportunity to evaluate the resistance of these cultivars against wind damage. A typhoon with sustained speed of 50 km/hr, and a maximum gusty wind of 67 km/hr as recorded by a meteorological station hit the experimental station. The typhoon felled some test varieties due to pseudostem breakage. Data were collected on the percentage of plant from each variety that was toppled down. Results showed that some varieties were severely affected while others withstood wind damage. FHIA varieties 17, 18, 23 and 25 were insignificantly affected with damage ranging from 0-4%. The popular local cultivar Lakatan was severely damage with 90 to 100% of plants felled. The Cavendish varieties manifested the following susceptibility to wind damage with percentage toppling down as follows, Bungulan (80%), and GCTCV 119 (60%), GCTCV 106 (20%). While the tall Cardaba (7%) and Dippig (29%) showed less damage the dwarf Kluai Namwa was totally unaffected; Cuarenta dias, a local early maturing variety, was totally spared from typhoon damage because of its shorter fruiting cycle. In general it was observed that plants with bigger stem girth and shorter plant stature were more resistant to wind damage.