BANANAS

Jon Verdick

Banana plants are very simple and easy to grow, adding an instant, tropical affect to any landscape.

Varieties

Bananas come in many sizes, shapes, colors and flavors. Plants vary from 2’ to 20’ tall; can be stout or slender, with wide or narrow, erect or droopy leaves. Somewhat oversimplified, bananas come in two sizes, Dwarf and Tall. The Dwarfs, very broadly, are about 5-7’ tall at the top of the trunk, and Talls are 10-14’ tall. Super Dwarf is supposedly about 2’ tall, and Saba grows to 25’ and more in the tropics. Generally, in my experience, with some notable exceptions, the Tall bananas will produce more and larger fruit than the Dwarfs. Some bananas are classified as Dessert types, for fresh eating; others are plantains, which are essentially a vegetable; and some are in between, classified as cooking types. Bananas are defined as herbs, meaning that they do not have woody stems. They have pseudostems formed from tightly packed leaf stems. The actual plant is an underground corm, somewhat akin to a tulip bulb. Leaves, and the flower spike, all originate from the underground corm. Each plant fruits once, then dies.

Propagation

Additional fruit is produced on successive generations of plants called rhizomes, or pups, which grow along side of the parent corm/plant. Pups can be removed from the parent plant and replanted to produce additional fruit and plants, or to maintain a good balance between the number of plants and the root mass available. Pups are removed by using a digging tool to sever the connection to the parent corm, and then wiggled and pried out of the ground.

Ornamental varieties are propagated from seed, as were the wild ancestors of modern bananas.

Growing Conditions

Bananas are shallow rooted and will adapt to most soils, so long as they receive a correspondingly appropriate amount of water. I have planted directly in my clay and cobble, and also in huge beds of pure compost, and the plants have been fine either way. Bananas supposedly like a temperature range of 55-90°, and grow most actively in this temperature range. “Reds” are generally more cold-sensitive than other varieties. Orinoco and California Gold are thought to be the most cold-hardy. All banana plants are very frost sensitive. From April to October, when growth is active, bananas need plenty of water, fertilizer and compost. From November to March, when growth is minimal, keep bananas moist, and do not fertilize. Excess water during dormancy causes the roots to rot.

Care and Feeding

I have deliberately tried to over-fertilize my bananas without success. Some will grow too fast, and their leaves will become tangled as the exit they stalk, but none have died or been “burned”. Supposedly they like a N-P-K formula of 9-3-27, but I have not been able to distinguish performance between that formula and 16-16-16 (the cheap stuff at Home Depot). I add about 12” of compost (in two or three applications) on the root area of my plants each year (a 6-12’ diameter). To maximize plant energy, fruit size and quantity, do not remove any green portion of the plant. Only remove yellow or brown portions of leaves and stems.

Fruiting

Bananas bloom “when they feel like it.” However, given similar growing conditions, plants of the same variety will generally flower once they reach the same height. Being familiar with the characteristics of your particular variety is important. If a plant is close to blooming late in the Fall, the bloom may be delayed until growth resumes in the Spring (although this is not always true here in San Diego). The first groups of flowers are female and produce fruit (varying from 3 or 4 “hands” to 20 or more). A few hermaphroditic flowers follow; these may produce very small vestigial bananas. The rest of the flowers on the plant are male (and, like most males, don’t do anything). There is no consistent opinion on whether the male portion of the flower should be removed. I leave about 8-12” of bare stem, then remove the terminal bud. My thinking is that energy going into flowering isn’t going into fruiting.

Harvest

Knowing when to pick your bananas is also dependent on knowing the characteristics of your particular variety. Kanderian ripened in 12 weeks, and Saba took about 10 months. I approach a new variety as follows: when the first hand appears, I write the date on the side of the stalk with a felt pen. After 6 months, if they have not shown any color change, I cut off the top (oldest) hand, and allow it to ripen (usually in a couple weeks). If it is OK, I continue removing hands as I need them. Eventually the rest will ripen on the “tree”. Picking when green spreads out the harvest (who wants to try and eat 100 bananas in a week?). There are other indications of impending ripening. Most varieties will increase in diameter, and the “corners” will become rounder. In some varieties, this change is almost imperceptible. In others, it is quite dramatic, with the bananas nearly doubling in diameter.

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Information about banana varieties is found at webebananas.com

CRFG Banana Fact Sheet

I have been a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers for about 20 years. I have grown bananas for about 10 years, and currently have about 100 varieties.

Among my favorite bananas are Namwah, Misi Luki, Lakatan, Monthan, Pisang Ceylon, Kanderian, and Praying Hands.

08/2006