Effect of CCC on Growth Retardation During Medium-Term Slow-Growth Storage for In vitro Culture of ‘Raja Sereh’ Banana (Musa Spp., Aab, Subgroup Silk)

This study aimed to find a method for 16-week in vitro storage of ‘Raja Sereh’ banana using chlormequat chloride (Cycocel, CCC) as a growth retardant. Shoot multiplication was carried out using kinetin to obtain aseptic shoots. The results showed effective shoot multiplication on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 6.0 mg·L⁻¹ 6-furfurylaminopurine (KIN) and 0.175 mg·L⁻¹ indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). In vitro storage in media containing CCC at concentrations of 5.0 mg·L⁻¹ and 7.5 mg·L⁻¹ without subculturing inhibited growth, reducing plantlet height and the number of shoots and leaves, inhibiting leaf length, while leaf width increased. Subculturing the plantlets on fresh medium without CCC showed that the banana plantlets retained their regenerative potential and formed new shoots and roots. This study concluded that CCC could be a potential growth retardant for the slow-growth storage of ‘Raja Sereh’ banana and its application in agricultural practices for banana propagation and preservation.