Propagation of Zingiberaceae and Heliconiaceae

Abstract

Increased interest in tropical cut flower export in developing nations has increased the emand for clean planting stock. The most popular items have been various gingers (Alpinia, Curcuma, and Heliconia) . This paper reviews seed and vegetative methods of propagation for each roup. Auxins such as IBA and NAA enhanced root development on aerial offshoots of Alpinia at the rate 500 ppm while the cytokinin, PBA, enhanced basal shoot development at 100 ppm. Rhizomes of Heliconia survived treatment in 4811 C hot water for periods up to 1 hour and 011 C up to 30 minutes in an experiment to determine their tolerance to tempera tures for eradicating nematodes. Pseudostems soaks in 400 mg/LN-6-benzylaminopurine improved basal bud break on heliconia rhizomes.[...]