Plantain Multiplication using the PIF Method

Traditionally: Suckers are propagated by extracting them from one field to another. This method lends itself to two weaknesses; diseases and pests are spread and large quantities of planting materials are not easy to acquire within short intervals.
In Vitro Techniques make use of laboratories wherein cells are cultured to produce plantlets. This is quite expensive.
In vivo techniques have to do with bending the pseudostem and decapitation. There is a great problem of disseminating diseases and pests if the mother plants are infested, but not treated with chemicals.
In vivo horticultural techniques of propagation are used to avoid major loopholes inherent in above techniques. These include:
i) Multiplication of decorticated stem and
ii) PIF = Plants issued from stem bits (Plants Issue de Fragments de tiges)
Here, we use buds, dormant suckers, sword suckers as well as maiden suckers to rapidly propagate clean banana/plantain plantlets.