Long term productivity of selected mutagen induced variants of Bambusa pallida Munro

Abstract

Bamboos are versatile multipurpose plants signifying sustainability and a sound socio-economics of the rural households in many parts of the world including the northeast India. Bamboo improvement is difficult because of its long flowering cycle and non-synchrony of flowering among the donor and the recipient species. Hence, genetic improvement of B. pallida through chemical mutation for traits such as fibre quality, growth and culm maturity was envisaged. The paper describes the cumulative performance of selected mutants. Observations on 15 selected clumps (3 colchicine treated and 10 ethrel treated) along with two untreated controls were recorded over seven years from 1995 to 2001. Total biomass per clump was very high in colchicine induced variants as compared to ethrel and control. Selections 1 and 11 (both colchicine treated) were marked for higher biomass/clump. Clump number 20, out of the ethrel treated variants, showed the highest culm dry matter (13.30 kg) in the experiment. Selected culm numbers 1 and 11 (both colchicine treated) and culm numbers 17 and 29 (both ethrel treated) were good for total culm weight.