LAUSR

ABSTRACT Sucker production of important clones belonging to different ploidy levels and genomic groups were assessed in three different planting seasons at Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, India. The study revealed that morphological characters such as plant height, collar girth, and total number of leaves recorded very strong, significant, and positive correlation with sucker production characters but negative correlation was observed with average leaf production interval and bunch weight. The number of dead suckers was found to be positively correlated with plant height, collar girth, “D” leaf area, bunch weight, and average leaf production interval. In a cluster analysis, six banana varieties that were planted in different three seasons (18 entries) and their pooled data (6 entries) were grouped into four distinct clusters each. In factor/principle component analysis, the first three major factors/principle components amounted to a total of 85.9% of the variability. The communality values of the factor analysis revealed that collar girth was the major relative contributory trait for deciding the sucker yield and production in banana. Abbreviations: EVS: Early vegetative stage; AVS: Active vegetative stage; FBI: Flower bud initiation; FBD: Flower bud differentiation; PCA: Principle component analysis; FA: Factor analysis