How to grow bananas

This article contained points to consider when establishing a new banana plantation.

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Good results with bananas can be obtained from using various types of planting material, provided such material is healthy, correctly treated and taken from vigorous and well-cared-for plantations. When establishing a new banana plantation, use planting material of more or less the same size to ensure uniform growth. Each plant will then derive maximum benefit from sunlight. The types of planting material used in South Africa range from small, so-called spear-point suckers, large suckers and ‘bits’, to corms.

Suckers: Two types of suckers can be found on a banana plant: sword suckers and water suckers. A sword sucker has narrow leaves with a broad stem base; it has a strong connection with its parent. A water sucker, on the other hand, has broad leaves and a narrow stem base. This indicates that it has a weak connection with its parents and therefore the reserves in its corm are potentially low, depleting the plant of its water reserves. This is a severe setback and can delay the first harvest.

Corms: This type of planting material consists of the parent that has been harvested.

Once the land has been lifted, all roots and suckers are paired off and the pseudostem cut off about 1m above the root zone.

Australian spear-point sucker