Banana Growing Tips, Techniques, Ideas, and Secrets

Banana Growing Tips, Techniques, Tricks, Ideas, and Secrets

Hello gardeners, we are back with a new and helpful topic today and the topic is all about banana growing tips, techniques, ideas, and secrets. Do you want to know all the basic and important tips for growing banana plants? Well and then you will need to follow this complete article to know all the basic and important tips, tricks, techniques, ideas, and secrets for growing banana plants.

Introduction to the Banana Plant

Musa is one among two or three genera within the Musaceae. The genus usually includes flowering plants producing edible bananas and even plantains. There are around 70 species of Musa are known, with a broad sort of uses.

There are dozens of species and sorts of banana and plantain trees. While these tropical fruiting plants are commonly mentioned as trees, they’re technically huge herbaceous plants, meaning they don’t have a woody stem. Instead, they usually need fleshy, upright stalks from which large, oblong and bright green leaves grow. Showy flowers appear typically within the spring, giving thanks to the fleshy, elongated, green, or yellow fruit.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Banana Growing Tips, Techniques, Ideas, and Secrets

The Overview Table of Banana Plant Is Given Below

Botanical Name	Musa spp.
Common Names	Banana tree and plantain tree
Plant Type	Herbaceous and perennial
Mature Size	2 to 30 ft. tall and 1 to 15 ft. wide (varies widely by species)
Sun Exposure	Full
Soil Type	Loamy and well-drained
Soil pH	Acidic
Bloom Time	Spring
Flower Colour	White, purple, and even orange

Banana Plant Types/Varieties

There are roughly 70 species and even more sorts of banana trees, including:

Musa acuminate

This species usually reaches around 12 to 20 feet tall and is usually grown for its ornamental foliage because of its paddle-shaped leaves which will reach around 6 to 10 inches long.

Musa ornate

Commonly mentioned because the flowering banana, this species is usually grown for its ornamental value and its small fruit isn’t typically eaten.

Musa basjoo

Commonly known as the Japanese banana, this species has fairly good cold tolerance and reaches around 6 to 14 feet tall.

Site Preparing Tricks for Growing a Banana Plant

Better look up your area’s temperature and humidity. Humidity should be a minimum of 50% and as constant as possible. Ideal daytime temperatures are between 26 to 30ºC; with night temperatures no less than 20ºC. Acceptable temperatures are warm and rarely reach less than 14ºC or above 34ºC.

Bananas can take up to a year to supply fruit, so it is important to understand what range of temperatures it’ll experience throughout the year.

If the temperature falls below 14ºC, then your banana plants will simply stop growing.

Find the sunniest area in your yard. Banana plants grow best with 12 hours of direct and bright sunlight every day. They will still grow with less (more slowly), but you ought to determine where in your yard receives the foremost sun.

Choose a neighbourhood with very good drainage. Bananas require tons of water but are susceptible to rotting if the water doesn’t drain adequately.

To test drainage, you need to dig a hole 0.3m or 1 ft. deep, fill it with water, and permit it to empty. Refill once empty, then measure what proportion of water is left after 1 hour. Approximately 7 to 15 cm water drainage per hour is right and suitable for banana plants.

A raised garden bed or even adding 20% perlite to the soil assists drainage.

This is especially important if you’re employing a banana plant that doesn’t yet have leaves or had the leaves removed for shipping. Leaves help to evaporate excess water.

Allow sufficient space. While banana plants are technically herbs, but they’re often mistaken for trees for a good reason. Some varieties and even individuals can easily reach 7.6 m or 25ft. in height, although you ought to check the source of your banana plant or even local banana growers for a more accurate estimate for your locale and variety.

Each banana plant requires a hole a minimum of 30cm or 1ft. wide and 30cm or 1ft. deep. Larger holes should be utilized in areas of wind.

Keep banana plants a minimum of 4.5m or 15ft from trees and shrubs with large root systems which will compete with the bananas’ water.

Multiple banana plants help one another maintain beneficial humidity and temperature levels, as long as they’re planted at the right distance. If you’ll plant several plants in a clump with 2 to 3m or 6.5 to 10ft. between all, or an outsized number of banana plants 3 to 5m or 10 to 16ft. from one another.

Dwarf varieties require very little space.

Propagation Ideas for Growing a Banana Plant

First, select your planting material. You’ll acquire a banana sucker that means a very small shoot from the bottom of a banana plant from another grower or plant nursery, or buy one online. A banana rhizome or even corm is that the base from which suckers usually grow. Tissue cultures are also produced in laboratories to make higher fruit yield. If you are transplanting a mature plant, then prepare a hole appropriate to its size and have an assistant assist you.

The best and perfect suckers to use are 1.8 to 2.1m or 6 to 7ft tall and have thin, sword-shaped leaves, although smaller suckers should work well if the mother plant is healthy. Big and round leaves are a symbol that the sucker is trying to form up for a scarcity of adequate nutrition from the mother plant.

If the sucker remains attached to a mother plant, remove it by cutting forcefully downward with a clean shovel. You need to include a big portion of the underground base or corm and its attached roots.

A rhizome or corm without any notable suckers is often chopped into small pieces. Each bit with a bud or proto-sucker will grow into a banana plant, but this may take longer than employing a sucker.

Planting Tips for Growing a Banana Plant

Dig a hole for every plant. You need to remove any plants or weeds that are growing on the planting site, then dig a circular hole 30cm wide and 30 cm deep a bigger hole will provide greater support for the plant but require more soil.

If you’re planting indoors, instead use a planting pot this size or larger

Mostly fill the opening with loose and rich soil. Leave several centimetres that means a few inches of space at the highest to encourage drainage.

Do not use potting soil or your regular garden soil unless you’re sure it’s suitable. Soil mixes intended for cacti can produce good results, or ask other growers of an equivalent banana variety.

The ideal and optimum soil acidity for bananas is between pH 5.5 and 7. Acidity pH 7.5 or even higher can kill the plant.

Place the plant upright within the new soil. The leaves should be pointing upward and therefore the soil should cover the roots and 1.5 to 2.5cm or 0.5 to 1 inches of the bottom.

How to Take Care of a Banana Plant in a Pot?

Light and Water

Whether inside or out, the potted bananas always need full sun, with six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day. They also need much water to stay their large leaves well hydrated. Check the soil in your container frequently, especially in hot summer temperatures, and if the plant is indoors where humidity might below. Keep the soil within the container constantly moist, and don’t let it dry out. At an equivalent time, don’t let the plant sit in standing water within the pot’s saucer, as this will cause the roots to rot.

Soil and Food

If your banana wasn’t planted in rich and well-draining soil with much humus, consider re-potting it to offer it the conditions it needs. Or, add a layer of organic mulch over the highest of the soil to assist it to retain moisture and to supply additional nutrients for the plant. During the summer season, feed the banana weekly with a balanced, all-purpose fertilizer consistent with the directions on the package.

Protection

Winds, cold temperatures, and even frost can all damage your banana. To guard against winds, place the banana’s pot next to a fence or in a sheltered spot. For cover against cold temperatures, set the container within the warmest part of your yard or deck, like next to a building or near an asphalt driveway. Frosts will kill the foliage on the banana, but the rhizomes will survive if the soil is above -5°C. to assist make sure the survival of your plant, cover the plant itself with a blanket or burlap, layer the soil with straw or mulch, or bring the banana indoors for the winter.

Winter Care Indoors

Continue to give the banana plant the maximum amount of light as you’ll during the winter, placing it in a south-facing window with direct sunlight. The plant’s growth will hamper over the winter indoors, so it’ll not need the maximum amount of water or the maximum amount of fertilizer because it did outdoors in the season. Still keep the soil moist, and reduce feeding to once a month. Move the plant outdoors when all danger of frost has passed within the spring.

Winter Care in a Basement or Garage

If your banana is just too large to suit inside, you’ve got two options:

After the primary frost, crop the leaves, leaving them 6 to eight inches long, and place the pot in a cool and dark spot. Water the plant only enough to stay the soil from completely drying out.

As soon as frosts are predicted, then you need to remove the banana and even its root ball from the container. Place the roots in a bag, leaving the foliage outside the bag, and store the plant within the basement or garage. There is no need for watering, and you’ll expect the plant’s foliage to die down

Pests and Disease

Except for the potential of plant disease from overwatering, banana plants haven’t any significant pest or disease problems. Minor problems include snails and earwigs which will crawl up the plants, and aphids, mealy bugs, moths, fruit flies, or spider mites that you simply can hose off with a robust spray of water. Fungal infections may occur from anthracnose, wilt, or even mosaic virus, but these diseases won’t kill the plant. A more serious possibility is gophers, whose digging could cause the plant to go over.

Banana Plant Watering Tips

Water frequently but avoid overwatering. Under watering may be a common explanation for banana plant death, but overwatering can cause the roots to rot.

In warm growing weather without rain, you’ll get to water your plant daily, but as long as the highest 1.5 to three cm or 0.5 to 1 inch of soil is dry. Test together with your finger before watering.

Reduce the quantity of water per session if the plant is sitting in water for long periods. That can cause root rot.

In cooler temperatures when the banana is barely growing, you’ll only get to water once hebdomadally or two. Remember to see soil moisture.

Leaves help evaporate excess moisture, so take care to not soak (just moisten) a young plant that has not yet grown leaves.

Water the ring of fertilizer also to assist it to soak into the soil.

Mulching Ideas for Growing a Banana Plant

Remove dead leaves and banana plants and then chop them up to put around the live plants. Other yard waste and wood ash also can be added to return nutrients to the soil.

Check the mulch regularly and take away any weeds that are growing. These can compete with the banana plant.

Pruning Secrets for Growing a Banana Plant

Before the banana fruits, prune it so there’s just one main stem. After it’s been growing for 6 to eight months, leave one sucker. This plant will replace the most stem within the next season. After the fruit is removed, cut the most stem right down to 2.5 feet. Remove the remainder of the stem in a few weeks, leaving the replacement sucker intact.

Fertilizing Techniques for Growing a Banana Plant

Fertilize monthly a short distance from the trunk. Better to use store-bought fertilizer, compost, manure, or a mix of those. Add fertilizer immediately after planting in a good ring around the banana plant and repeat at monthly intervals.

Young plants require 0.1 to 0.2kg or 0.25 to 0.5lbs monthly, rising to 0.7 to 0.9kg or 1.5 to 2 lbs. for an adult plant. Increase gradually as your plant grows.

If the temperature falls below 14ºC or if the banana plant hasn’t grown since last month, then it is better to skip the fertilization.

Fertilizers are usually labelled with three numbers (N-P-K) representing the quantity of Nitrogen, Phosphorus (Potash), and Potassium. Bananas usually require very high amounts of Potassium, but the opposite nutrients are important also. You’ll need to use a balanced fertilizer (three numbers roughly equal) or a fertilizer that addresses deficiencies in your soil.

You should not use manure produced within the previous couple of weeks, because the heat it releases while decomposing can damage the plant.

Other Caring Tips in Growing a Banana Plant

In case if you miss this: Easy Fruits To Grow In Pots.

You need to support the plant to avoid toppling the plant thanks to strong wind or bunch weight. There are 3 main and easy ways of doing it:

Wire or Rope and Bottle Method: stop rock bottom of a plastic bottle. Insert a long wire/very strong twine through the mouth and bottom of the bottle. You need to crunch the bottle to form it bendable and soft. Prop the banana stem on the bottle, and then use the wire to tug the stem slightly more upright. Tie the write to strong support.

Single Bamboo Method: Use a 3m or 10 inches long bamboo pole or other strong, durable material. Cut a bit of Y-shaped wood 10cm or 4 inches thick and 60cm or 2 inches wide. Let the stem rest on the centre of the “Y” and then push the bamboo upwards a touch bit therefore the stem is wedged into the “Y” tightly. Bury the opposite end of the bamboo that means the base deeply into the bottom. Tamp very firmly.

Double Bamboo Method: Use two 3m or 10 inches long bamboo poles. On one end of the poles, you need to tie them alongside a robust wire 30 cm or 1 inch from the top. Open up the poles to make a letter “X”. you need to let the stem rest on the short end, push upwards a touch bit to make pressure, and bury the opposite ends of both poles. Tamp very firmly.

Overwinter Care for Growing a Banana Plant

Provide overwinter care. If the temperature during the winter months falls too low for your plant, then there are several ways to worry about it:

Cover the stem with a blanket or soil. If there is no frost and then, therefore, the plant remains very small, this might be adequate protection until the temperature rises high enough for it to grow again.

Store the plant inside. Uprooting the whole plant, just by removing the leaves, and store in moist sand in a heated indoor area. Don’t water or fertilize; the plant will go dormant until you’re able to plant it outside again.

Grow the plant inside. This may usually require an outsized pot with a drainage hole. If you do not want to grow your banana too big for your pot, you’ll get to cease or reduce the fertilizer treatments.

Salvage pieces to plant later. If frost or cold has killed most of your plant, the likelihood is that the suckers and corms at the bottom are still usable. Cut these far away from the dead portion and store them in their own small pots to plant outside later.

Pest and Diseases Controlling Ideas in Banana Plants

Anthracnose

Commercially produced fruit should be washed and dipped in fungicide before shipping; protect the fruit from injury; remove flower parts that will harbour fungus.

Black Sigatoka

Export plantations may require regular fungicide applications; increase plant spacing to enhance air circulation and reduce humidity; remove leaves with mature spots

Cigar end rot

Infected flowers should be far away from the plant; bunches should be bagged using perforated polyethene; chemical control could also be necessary within the case of severe infestations.

Cordana leaf spot

Remove all the infected leaves and burn them. If the disease is severe spray copper-based fungicides.

Panama disease

Better to use disease-free planting materials and currently no effective treatment once plants are infected.

Rhizome rot

Select only top quality, disease-free rhizomes for propagation; disinfect all tools used for propagation regularly; allow seed pieces to dry before planting

Yellow Sigatoka

Export plantations may require regular fungicide applications; increase plant spacing to enhance air circulation and reduce humidity; remove leaves with mature spots

Banana bacterial wilt

Use disease-free planting material. Roughing of infected plants and destroy them. Removing excess male buds prevent disease spread. Disinfect the farm equipment.

Moko disease

Banana plantations should be regularly monitored for the presence of disease; if Moko is present, male buds should be removed and every one tool thoroughly disinfected; infected plants may have to be destroyed alongside any neighbouring plants

Banana mosaic

You need to remove susceptible host plants from around the plantation; plant virus-free material

Bunchy top

Plant less susceptible varieties; destroy infected plants to stop the spread of disease

Banana aphid

Chemical control doesn’t protect the transmission of Banana bunchy top and direct feeding damage isn’t usually severe enough to warrant spraying; insecticidal soaps can help control aphid populations; plants infected with bunch top should be removed and destroyed to stop the spread.

Banana skipper

Encourage and release natural enemies to see the population of skippers. Handpick the larvae and kill them.

Banana weevil

Plant only healthy material, don’t plant if any tunnels are visible; predicament treatment of cleanly trimmed suckers are often wont to exterminate many eggs and grubs; applications of neem powder can reduce weevil numbers and use appropriate insecticides applied at the time of planting can help control weevil numbers

Coconut scale

Biological control is that the best thanks to managing scale, with lady beetles providing the foremost effective protection.

Banana Plant Harvesting Techniques

You may also check this: How To Grow Organic Spinach At Home.

Ready To Harvest Bananas (pic credit: pixabay)

You need to harvest bananas when the flowers or plants are dying. The tiny flower at the tip of every banana will become very dry and simply abrade, or the banana plant will lose most of its leaves. This is often an honest time to reap the banana fruit.

You need to cut a notch halfway into the tree, opposite the side of the bunch.

Carefully let the tree bend and then stop the bunch.

The fruit will ripen very quickly once harvested, so you’ll want to select some very well beforehand of harvesting so you do not find yourself with excess fruit which will attend waste.