Abstract:
Enset is drought tolerant crop and is known as enemy of hunger as it is food security
subsistence for more than 20 million Ethiopians. However, the crop coverage as well as
production and productivity are declining from time to time due to various problems,
among which lack of enough, high quality planting material is worth mentioning. This
resulted from lack of improved propagation technologies including use of appropriate
growth substrates and corm sizes. Therefore, a shade house investigation was conducted
to evaluate the effects of substrate and corm size on the sucker production of macropropagated
enset clone. The treatments consisted of three substrates (forest soil, sawdust
and FYM) and three corm sizes (whole corm, halved corm and quartered corm) laid out
in a 3×3 factorial arrangement in completely randomized design with three replications.
Data on days to first bud regeneration, growth, biomass and photosynthetic efficiency
were collected and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The interaction of
substrate and corm size has influenced height and girth of pseudostem, shoot fresh and
dry weight. The result also revealed that volumetric water content, number and length
root, root fresh and dry weight, maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm) and performance index
(PIABS) were affected only by the main effect of substrate. Moreover, Days to first bud
regeneration, number of shoots, shoot height, leaf number and total leaf area were
affected by main effects of substrate and corm size. The earliest bud regeneration was
observed in FYM and halved corm. And maximum number of shoot was recorded from
FYM and quartered corm. The number and length of roots, Fv/Fm, PIABS, shoot height,
