This video shows the banana tissue culture technology as a means to produce thousands of new banana plantlets in six to eight months that are pest and disease-free, uniform, more vigorous than suckers, easily transportable, and so easily marketable. The production of tissue culture plants is done in a series of steps which are Healthy Sucker Selection and Sterilization, Multiplication on Media, Rooting on Media, Hardening, Weaning and Porting, Indexing for Viruses, Certification, Healthy Sucker Selection and Sterilization. Healthy young suckers are selected from Healthy Looking Mother plants, they are then cleaned by removing soil and surface tissue like roots, sheaths and part of the comb. A small part with a growing tip is then disinfected in the laboratory. Multiplication on Media This is then divided into small pieces and planted on the medium which allows it to bring multiple shoots. This process takes about four weeks depending on number of plants to be produced. Before the multiplication process proceeds further, a small portion of the leaf from the plantlet is collected and samples are sent to advanced plant laboratories and analyzed for three major viral diseases that occur in sub-Saharan Africa. These are banana bunchy top virus, banana streak virus and cucumber mosaic virus. Plant that test positive to virus are destroyed. Plant that test negative to virus are indexed as healthy and can be used by farmers. Rooting on Media After multiplication, the shoots that have grown leaves are then planted on Rooting Medium. The Rooting Medium allows the plant to develop roots during a period of around four weeks. Hardening, weaning and potting Once the plants have developed roots, they need to be hardened before planted in the field. The first step is called weaning. This is when plants are removed from the Rooting Medium and planted in small cups with sterilized soil and manure. These cups are then placed in a humidity chamber for three to six weeks. The humidity chamber protects the small plantlets from dry air and low temperatures. After the humidity chamber, the plantlets are put in potting bags and transferred to a shade house where they spend around two months. After the shade house, the plantlets are ready for planting. The plants are planted in a well-cleared garden free of weeds with holes 60 cm wide and 60 cm deep. Please note that the potted tissue culture plantlets are more fragile than suckers. Tissue culture plants are small and have limited reserves because the corn is small. Therefore, tissue culture plantlets need special care during establishment. This special care particularly involves application of nutrients and additional watering during dry periods for better establishment. If the young plants get stressed, then their initial benefits will be lost. The hardening of plantlets can be organized by the tissue culture company or by an independent nursery owned by farmers or community. From these nurseries, tissue culture plantlets directly or indirectly gain access to farmers. Indexing for viruses certification We recommend that you ascertain for yourselves that you received certified virus free planting material by requesting the virus indexing report. Although tissue culture plants can be highly productive, not all past experiences have been positive. Some farmers received diseased or mixed planting materials. This should not be tolerated and critical feedback from farmers to the tissue culture labs and national plant health authorities is encouraged. In this video, we have looked at healthy suckers selection and sterilization procedures for ensuring healthy planting material. Multiplication on media which allows production of multiple shoots. After full development of roots, plants are then hardened by planting them in small cups with sterilized soil mixed with manure and kept under humidity conditions. After hardening, the plants can be planted but need special care because the plants need sufficient water and nutrients. If farmers notice that plants are diseased or have different traits than expected, then they should alert the tissue culture lab and the national plant health authorities.