Characteristics of few commercial and indigenous cultivars of banana grown in Assam

Characteristics of few commercial and indigenous banana cultivars of Musa AAA group, namely, Jahaji, Barjahaji, Maan Jahaji, Suti Jahaji, Grand Naine, Giant Governor, Amritsagar, Sahabkal, Red Banana and Tulshi Manohar were studied in the Instructional cum Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath Chariali during 2013–14. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Among the different cultivars, Red Banana recorded the highest number of functional leaves per plant. The longest fingers were produced by Grand Naine followed by Sahabkal, Barjahaji and Amritsagar, while the other cultivars produced comparatively shorter fingers. Yield and yield attributing characters were found to be significant among all the cultivars. Among the cultivars, Grand Naine recorded the highest number of hands (10.72/bunch), number of fingers (135/bunch), length of finger (20.05 cm), pulp: peel ratio (2.87), bunch weight (24.66 kg/bunch) and yield (55.91 t/ha) with the longest peduncle (52.33 cm). Though the heaviest fingers were produced by Red Banana (161.41 g/finger) but the number of hands (4/bunch), number of fingers (43.60/bunch), bunch weight (9.05 kg/bunch) and yield (20.52 t/ha) were observed to be the lowest with shortest peduncle length (29.0 cm) in Red Banana.