How to Grow Bananas

Nothing says “tropical” quite like a banana tree. Bananas are tall herbs, that grow in clumps with long pale green leaves. Depending on the variety, bananas can grow to 25-feet tall. Each individual plant produces fruit only once. The huge bunch of ripening fruit hangs from the top of each shoot when it is producing. Ornamental varieties of bananas have become popular in places without tropical climates. Look for varieties that are suited to your climate zone at your local nursery.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Plant bananas in areas that get full sun. Bananas like a fair amount of soil, so prepare your planting area carefully and plant in an area that has several feet of soil so that it can form a robust root system.

2. Place your young banana plant into a hole that you have enriched with compost.

3. As your banana grows larger, it will send up shoots, or “suckers,” from its base. Mulch the plant heavily with its own leaves, which you can snip off to keep it looking pretty when the leaves turn yellow.

4. To promote fruit production, leave only two adult plants and two young shoots per clump. You can cut them off or transplant them to another spot to form more plants.

5. Frequently add compost, humus, manure or another source of natural nitrogen to the soil around your bananas, as they are heavy feeders. Ensure that your plant gets plenty of water, especially if you live in a dry area or if it doesn’t rain for a week or longer.

6. Harvest your bananas when the first one in a clump starts to yellow. The rest will quickly follow suit and soon you’ll have more bananas than you can eat. You can peel them and freeze them.

Tips & Warnings

• If you live in a windy location, plant bananas where they will get some protection from high winds, such as behind your house or another plant.
• Allow plenty of room for this plant to roam. Your baby banana will form a clump of banana plants that can get to be 15 feet or more across.
• If you live in Hawaii, check the base of any banana plants you move for pencil-sized holes. If you find any, this may indicate that the plant has the banana root borer. You should burn or bury that plant.
• Never move young banana plants from one Hawaiian island to another, as this might introduce the borer to an area where it does not already exist.