Direct Organogenesis in Vitro Propagation of Local Balinese Banana with Thidiazuron

Bali’s community needs for bananas are very high, but cannot be fulfilled from the production of bananas in Bali. The main problem for banana cultivation in Bali is the difficulty of getting seeds. Direct organogenesis is offered to overcome this problem. The objective of the research was to study direct organogenesis on in vitro propagation of local Balinese banana with Thidiazuron. The research was carried out at Tissue Culture Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with five treatments of thidiazuron concentration, i.e. 0; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5, and 2.0 ppm. Each treatment was replicated 5 times. The Murashige & Skoog medium added with coconut water and extract of bamboo shoots was used as a basic medium. The local Balinese bananas named Saba and Susu were used as source of planting materials. Explants were taken from shoot tips of suckers of newly growing plants. The results showed that the best treatment for both Saba and Susu, was 1 ppm of thidiazuron, as indicated by the highest number of plantlets produced, the number of shoots and plant height.