Comparative studies on growth and Yield of Conventional and Tissue culture plants of Turmeric (Curcuma longa) var. CO2

Abstract

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is an ancient spice, native of India and South East Asia used from antiquity as spice and a dye. It is commonly propagated through rhizomes. The availability of disease free quality planting material is scarce during the cropping season (June – September). An experiment was conducted to study the performance of in vitro derived turmeric plants with conventional rhizome under field condition. The results indicated that the tissue culture plants showed better performance over the conventional rhizome planting. Tissue culture plants grew vigorously and taller than conventional type. The highest yield potential was observed in tissue cultureplants (40.83 tons/ha) as compared to the conventional rhizome planting (30.14 tons/ha). The rhizome rot incidence was lower (3.87% ) in tissue culture plants than rhizome-derived plants (25.58% ). However, the agronomic traits observed during the present study in tissue culture plants are stable and rhizome harvested from tissue culture plants can be used as disease free planting materials for further planting.