Abstract: Macro propagation is an excellent option for producing quality planting material at a lesser cost. This is a simple method because of the ease of multiplication, saves cost of producing planting material and has the potential of producing 50-60 shoots per sucker in a duration of 4-5 months. It can rapidly multiply plantlets to distribute a new variety or replace plants in disease-affected fields. It can be done locally at low cost and with little training: a private person or a farmers’ organization can launch this activity very easily. An experiment was conducted during February- March 2022 and completed during May-June 2022 at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Salem District of Tamil Nadu in India. Red banana suckers of three to four months old received from the farmers fields were taken for macro propagation techniques in different combination of growing media including soil, sand, vermi compost etc. Different treatments (T1 – Soil alone, T2 – Sand alone, T3 – Vermi compost alone, T4- Soil and sand at 1:1 ratio, T5- Soil and sand at 2:1 ratio, T6 – Soil, Sand and vermi compost at 1:1:1 ratio and T7 – Soil, Sand and vermi compost at 2:1:1 ratio) were replicated thrice in a randomized block design to find out the best suitable media for red banana plantlets production through macro propagation in Salem District. Results revealed that sand was more outstanding growing media over soil and vermicompost. This might be due to the use of reserved nutrition available in the corms and the pore spaces available in sand media is good environment for more number of good quality plantlets production.

Keywords: Suitable Growing media, Red banana, Macro propagation, Salem District

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2024.111261