mortiz085

Abaca plants Abaca ( Musa textilis Née), a relative of the edible banana ( Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana ), is a native to the Philippines. It is grown primarily for its fibers which are utilized by the pulp, cordage and fiber craft industries. Studies have shown that the specific tensile strength of abaca fiber is comparable to or even higher than that of fiberglass (Bledzki et al., 2007;Sinon, 2008). Dr. Marlito Bande and co-workers, in a paper to be published in the international journal Industrial Crops and Products 42:70– 77 , reported on the optimum light, nutrient and water requirements of abaca to attain optimum yield. They also discussed how these parameters affect fiber recovery and fiber quality under field conditions.  They showed that abaca planted under 50% shade had significantly (p < 0.01) higher fiber yield than those planted under the other shade/light treatments (30% and 40% of full sunlight using polypropylene shade nets) since the plants pseudostem under