Abstract: The suitability of bud manipulation technique as an alternative to tissue culture in the regeneration of healthy planting material for farmers was investigated from May 2013 to August 2013, at the University of Cape Coast. The bud manipulation technique was carried out where the apical meristem of the corm was cut through to remove apical dominance effect. One hundred and twenty corms from sword suckers were used for each of the techniques, forty for each of the three cultivars (2 plantain cultivars and 1 banana cultivar). The tissue culture protocol was used for the in vitro culture. Generally, the explants produced more shoots in vitro compared to the bud manipulation technique. The highest number of shoot, 23 per explant under the in vitro technique was from the plantain cultivar Apantu whilst 15 shoots per explant were produced from the same cultivar, with the bud manipulation technique. The same trend was observed with the shoot height. Tissue cultured shoots had a maximum mean shoot height of 25 cm from Apantu whilst bud manipulation technique produced plantlets with maximum mean shoot height of 14 cm. The three cultivars performed better with tissue culture and of the three cultivars, Apantu had a better performance. Even though tissue culture produced more shoots compared to the bud manipulation technique, the number of shoots, shoot height and percentage survival of plantlets from the bud manipulation makes the bud manipulation technique a suitable alternative to tissue culture since it is farmer friendly and less expensive.