How to grow bananas at home properly

There are many different ways to grow bananas at home if you search online. Many articles there suggest that growing bananas is easy, but is it really so? Discover the extremely easy experience of growing bananas right now!

After a two-month absence, returning to Facebook, I saw pictures of a friend's newly planted banana garden. Knowing that your banana cultivation isn't done correctly, your bananas will harvest slowly and with very poor productivity, so I intend to "advise" you to redo it in time for a quicker harvest and higher productivity.

1. How to correctly grow bananas at home?

If I remember correctly, there are up to 72 types of bananas worldwide, all very easy to grow. They can "thrive wherever they're planted," as long as there is soil and moisture. That's why banana plants are seen almost everywhere around the world; there's no rural area without the presence of banana trees.

Even within the city, occasionally you'll find a few homes with a small patch of banana plants—probably more for nostalgia than for harvesting, as ripe bananas can be bought at any supermarket. But growing bananas correctly for high economic yield is something only experts or experienced farmers with extensive knowledge of this plant can achieve without investing too much labor and care, yet yielding very high results.

I'm not an expert in growing bananas at home, but after 1975, I spent nearly 20 years as a farmer, cultivating a one-hectare orchard of fruit trees, successfully rotating crops like oranges, papayas, and bananas.

Back then, there was no Internet with Google to consult; I learned farming from instructions in books, combined with years of hands-on experience. This gave me some understanding of the characteristics and effective cultivation techniques of these three types of fruit trees.

Books on farming naturally were written by experts in relevant fields, although there were cases where the authors of some books were... artists. So, I once read an author teaching papaya cultivation, but in the book, he drew... a male papaya tree with beautifully long flowers!

I only have practical experience growing two types: apple-banana (bananitos) and Pisang Awak bananas, but this experience can probably be applied to all other types of bananas. These are the things about banana characteristics and cultivation techniques that I did to support my family during difficult times.

2. Characteristics to know about banana plants

This is the wrong technique for planting bananas.

Before getting into detailed methods of growing bananas at home, you need to know the following characteristics about banana plants. For beginners in banana cultivation, it's important to grasp this information.

Banana plants are herbaceous plants; their stems are tightly packed leaf sheaths from inside out. In its lifetime, a banana plant only has a certain number of leaves. When it has produced all its leaves, the banana plant flowers - meaning it produces fruit.
The root of a banana plant lies just below the ground surface, not deeper than about four, sometimes three spans. This is often called the "banana bulb." All banana roots grow close to or above the ground surface.

It's important to note that the leaves of the plant are its food source. They photosynthesize CO2 from the air combined with nutrients in the soil absorbed by the roots to nourish the plant. In its lifetime, a banana plant only has a certain number of leaves; once it has produced all its leaves, it flowers and... dies. Therefore, the method of planting bananas before they produce their first leaf allows the banana plant to live its entire life, giving it enough time to develop and achieve high productivity.

Many people do not realize this, so they have a habit of "transplanting" a banana plant that's about to mature elsewhere for planting. To prevent the plant from wilting (because it doesn't have new roots) and from being blown down by the wind (because the stem is too tall with too many leaves), one must dig a hole deep to bury the banana root, plant it, compact the soil tightly, and cut the banana stem low. These are two extremely harmful mistakes because:

Banana plants naturally do not have deep-reaching roots for eating but thrive in loose surface soil, so they must sprout near the surface to develop. Being buried deep and compacted like this, banana plants will spend a lot of time and energy sprouting upwards, risking being "choked" and drying out before dying.
A newly sprouted banana plant has lost many leaf stems before, surviving only on the new leaves remaining. If the banana plant is grown from a large stem, fewer banana leaves will grow back, making the new banana stem thin and frail; therefore, the banana chamber is also small and has fewer clusters.

3. Step-by-step guide to growing bananas at home

Digging a hole for planting bananas does not need to be too deep.

From these observations, the proper way to grow bananas at home for high yields is to apply these techniques.

3.1. Choosing the banana seedling

It is best to plant bananas with newly sprouted seedlings, such as a strong, tall bamboo sprout, about 4 to 5 spans above the ground, without any leaves. Use a sharp tool like a knife, cut straight from the top down, and separate the banana seedling from the mother banana bulb. Apply the cut surface of the banana seedling to charcoal to protect it from bacteria that could cause rot.
If there are not enough such banana seedlings, you can cut bamboo shoots from the mother banana bulb, also applying the cut surface of the new bamboo shoot to charcoal, placing it in a moist and cool place, watering moderately every day, waiting for the banana shoot to grow like bamboo shoots before planting.

3.2. Correct banana planting technique

The suitable soil for growing bananas is loose, fertile surface soil. Before planting, prepare a square "pit" 2 spans deep (20 cm), each side about 60 cm wide. Mix soil and manure (in a 1:1 ratio) and fill the "pit." In the middle of this soil and manure "pit," dig a small hole about 20 cm deep, as wide as the base of the banana seedling.
Gently place the base of the banana seedling into that "hole," lightly fill the soil around the base, and water just enough. (Absolutely do not compact the soil to allow the banana plant to easily and quickly develop roots). A 4-meter spacing between plants is appropriate. And absolutely do not plant bananas that have produced many leaves.

3.3. Caring for banana plants after planting

Bananas are plants that thrive in moist soil. Perhaps about 92 percent of banana plants are water; bananas cannot tolerate dryness (which affects yield), but they also (really) cannot tolerate waterlogging or prolonged waterlogging. It's best to always keep the soil moist. Since all banana roots grow close to the surface, fertilizing bananas does not require digging holes around the stem. Just spread manure on the ground around the banana plant, about 5 spans from the base, and sprinkle water (to keep the manure moist, not blown away by the wind).
In my experience, every time I work on the banana garden, I gather all the debris in the garden, along with dry banana leaves and stems that have eaten the chamber, and spread them around each banana tree base. These debris piles will decompose into fertilizer for the banana roots to absorb again. (You scratch somewhere in the garden with debris, you will immediately see banana roots lying on the ground - to absorb the fertilizer from the debris).
In the sunny season, in addition to keeping the soil moist, occasionally mix Urea (about 1 teaspoon in ten liters of water) lightly sprayed on the underside of the banana leaves in the cool afternoon. The leaves will absorb this fertilizer, keeping them lush green during the sunny season, enhancing photosynthesis.
Bananas need a lot of Potassium (abundant in manure) for sturdy stems, large and sweet fruits, but in the rainy season, rainwater washes away a lot of Potassium on banana leaves, so regularly fertilize with manure. Do not use inorganic fertilizer, or at least do not abuse this type of fertilizer, as it will make the soil stale, and bananas can only eat for one season, the next season will decline.

3.4. Some tips to know in growing bananas at home

In countries where bananas are grown "en masse," harvesting and processing are done with industrial methods; people put the entire banana garden towards one direction for easy harvesting with specialized machines or vehicles. Methods like this:
When placing banana seedlings in the planting hole, pay attention to the cut surface (charcoal rubbed) of the banana seedling facing the same direction. Mature banana plants will flower in the opposite direction of the cut surface under the root.
To maintain this feature of the entire banana garden, garden owners should remove some banana seedlings some distance away so that each banana bush, except the mother plant, leaves a maximum of 4 seedlings facing four certain directions.

Above is the entire method of growing bananas at home that you can apply right now. Plant this extremely good fruit tree in your home garden!

My Garden

Search This Blog