Planting a Banana Tree

One of the key factors behind successful banana tree planting is choosing the right banana variety and the right spot to plant it in. Most banana varieties needs, or at least appreciates, really warm soil where the soil temperature never drops below 68 degrees F. If the soil temperature falls lower than this, the plant will stop growing or grow really slow. It can survive much colder temperatures, but it will not produce any significant new growth until the soil gets warmer.

Planting banana tree pups with the aim of getting fruit will require even more care when it comes to spot selection, since the banana plant needs to develop a certain number of leaves before it produces any fruit. If the soil is to cold, the growth rate of the leaves will be really slow, and the plant will not have time to develop a sufficient amount of leaves during the summer season. In most varieties, the plant needs at least 12-20 leaves before it can produce any bananas. To promote fruiting, feed your banana plants plenty of nutrition as soon as the soil temperature goes above 68 degrees F.

Despite what you may have heard, banana tree planting is still possible through ordinary seeds. The reason why many people assume that there is no such thing as banana seeds is that the commercially grown bananas that we can find in the grocery store are produced by seedless cultivars. If you prefer to grow wild bananas or one of the seed-producing cultivars, you can use seeds. If you on the other hand want to grow Cavendish bananas or any other seedless cultivar, you have to plant a “pup” (the sprouting root chunk of a banana tree) or similar.

After the banana tree planting, it is important to make sure that your plants receive sufficient amounts of potassium. As you may know already, bananas are high in potassium, and that potassium is derived from the soil in which the banana tree is planted. Poor soil or overcrowding can easily result in a potassium deficiency that will harm the entire plant. Large scale banana growers normally chop up old pseudostems and use them as mulch – this way the potassium will return to the soil and the same potassium can be used by generation after generation. If you do not want to do this in your garden, you can instead purchase a fertilizer suitable for banana plants. If you fail to locate special banana fertilizer, get an ordinary citrus fertilizer and add a high-potassium product to the mix each time you fertilize. Banana trees grows fast and consumes a lot of nutrients, so using both compost, mulching and commercial fertilizers is often a good idea.