Effect of early inoculation of biofertilizers on the growth of Saba cv. banana (Musa balbisiana) for nursery management

Saba cv. (BBB, Musa balbisiana) is the most common local cooking banana grown predominantly by small farmers in the Philippines. Use of production technology such as microbial-based biofertilizers (BF) will have an impact on the local banana industry, providing a low-cost and environment-friendly way of increasing productivity via improved water and improved tolerance to environmental and biotic stresses. Preliminary screenhouse experiment evaluated the effect of early inoculation of BF in tissue-cultured Saba banana. Singly or in combination, Mykovam (P-solubilizing endomycorrhizal fungi) and Bio-N (N-fixing bacteria) were applied to the roots of meriplants at potting. Sterile soil medium was amended either with compost (C), inorganic fertilizer (IF) or their combination. Significant effect of BFs was evident six weeks after inoculation. BFs and IF promoted higher shoot growth, with Bio-N + IF obtaining the highest plant height (15.50 cm), diameter (11.27mm) and leaf area (172.80 sq cm), followed by Mykovam + Bio-N + IF and Mykovam + IF. For media with compost, addition of Bio-N IF proves to be superior in terms of shoot development with a total leaf area of about 1,078 sq cm. For media containing pure soil, all BFs + IF showed higher agroparamaters, dry matter (DM) of stems and leaves relative to those with the control and BFs alone. Bio-N and Mykovam combination produced the most number of main roots (15). Addition of IF on BF combination reduced number of main roots to 12. DM of roots both primary and laterals were similar across treatments, however, the higher value obtained on Bio-N + IF on a sterile soil media is noteworthy (1.55 g primary roots and 3.43 g lateral roots). Saba cultivar seemed to be more responsive to the addition of IF and Bio- N. IF promotes faster growth of Saba seedlings in the nursery which was further enhanced with the addition of Bio-N. Whether this observation will be translated on farm is yet to be confirmed (BF- treated Saba were currently being monitored on-farm).