Banana (Musa paradisiaca L.)
I. Application and Amplification of General Clone Certification Standards
The General Clone Certification Standards are basic and together with the following specific standards
constitute the standards for certification of banana clones.
The General standards are amplified as follows to apply specifically to banana.
All Certified clones shall be produced by asexual methods like sword sucker.
II. Land Requirement:
Land to be used for clonal propagation of banana shall be free from volunteer plants and diseases.
III. Field Inspection
Mother Plant:
Mother Plant should be healthy, true to type and free from diseases and pests. The plants should be certified for the
desirable characters by the Certifying Agency and a certificate to this effect shall be given to the nurseries. A minimum
of one inspection shall be made at the time of fruit maturity for health and fruit quality of the mother tree.
Clones (Suckers)
A minimum of one inspection shall be made before the sale of the clones after
attaining the specified size to verify relevant factors.
IV. Field Standards
A. General requirements.
1. Isolation: The clone propagation plots of banana shall be isolated from the contaminants with 3-meter
distance.
2. Spacing: The spacing between plants in clone propagation plots should be 1.5 m and between rows1.5m
3. Rotation: Nursery should be rotated to other plots after raising banana three times in the same plot.
B. Specific Requirements
Clones:
1. Foundation clones being a group of common ancestry shall be genetically pure in absolute terms.
Off types should be discarded under the supervision of Certification Agency.
2. The plants should be free from bunchy top, nematode and Panama disease.
V. Clone Specifications:
The specifications in respect of size of clones shall be as follows.
1. The diameter of the sucker should range from 7.0 - 10.0cm.
2. In the clone lot, clones not conforming to specified size shall not exceed 5.0%(by number)