EFFECT OF SIX WEED MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES ON WEEDCONTROL AND GROWTH AND YIELD OF PLANTAIN (Musa spp AAB cv AGBAGBA) AT NSUKKA

📄 Project Abstract

Bananas and plantains belong to the genus Musa and the family Musaceae (Stover and Simmonds, 1987), and are fast growing herbaceous perennials arising from underground rhizomes or corms. They originated from South-East Asia (Onwueme, 1984) and Western Pacific regions where the inedible, seed-bearing diploid ancestors can still be found in the natural forest vegetations (Robinson, 1996). The flesh stalks or pseudo stems formed by upright concentric layers of leaf sheaths constitute the functional trunks (Simmonds, 1966). Suckers spring up around the main plant forming a mat, the oldest suckers replacing the main plant when it fruits and dies (Lee, 2000). According to Robinson (1996), the root system in banana plants is fleshy and adventitious from the beginning. A banana adventitious root system spreads profusely. Horizontal extension of the primary roots can go as far as 5 metres; although commonly it can reach up to 2 metres. The vertical root zone is very shallow with about 40% of th...