I’m doing this post after coming across these “lazily” planted bananas by a certain farmer in my village. I’m using the term “lazily” because that’s the only way I can think of to describe what the farmer had done. Jane had planted three banana suckers which were visible from the road, and after a heavy afternoon downpour, they had all gone down. And as I was passing by, she was looking at the bent suckers sullenly, blaming the rain. After exchanging pleasentries and inquired what was bothering her, pretending not to have seen the suckers, she had told me about her bananas.
In short what the farmer had done was dig a shallow hole, barely two feet deep and put in his banana sucker and covered. You can’t plant a banana that way and expect to reap. And even if her bananas had survived the storm by the way, I’m pretty sure they would not have lived long enough to fruit. I don’t know if it was just ignorance on her part or laziness, but I think maybe both. But I did help her at the end of the day. We have to help each other. We must help each other.
After that encounter I thought to myself why not do a post about it to rescue farmers like Jane who might be interested in banana farming but don’t know how to go about it. I’m aware not everyone grew up in farms, or in homes where bananas were grown, or were lucky enough to pursue agriculture in school, and if such people are open to learning and practicing it, then that’s where we come in. I’ll give you guys three simple steps to follow and you’ll be good to go. It’s not that difficult by the way.
First step
Begin by choosing a nice spot in your farm with good sunlight, although bananas can still do well even under shades such as in a tree grove or intercroped with other crops such as coffee. Don’t worry too much about the soils as you can control the hole soils by use of manure fertilizers.
Second step
After you have identified a place you wanna plant your bananas, the next step is preparing or digging holes for the suckers. And here is where most farmers fail. A banana plant is like an arrowroot with delicate root system that is not designed to penetrate soils in search of food and water like other plants, but its root system is designed to be fed. So you have to provide everything it requires to grow. If like in the case of Jane, you are not in a position to dig an adequate hole yourself, get someone to do it for you but ensure it’s to the required specifications. The hole must be about one meter or three feet deep and the same width. You can make it circular still, which I prefer. While digging, separate the top soil from the sub soil as you will need the top soil when planting.
Third step
When you are certain the hole is up to standard, get your well prepared viable banana sucker and get ready for planting. Make sure you have good manure which you will mix with the top soil and use it to cover the sucker. Partially cover the hole and mulch the rest of the hole with straw or dry leaves to protect the soil from the sun and at the same time preserve water.
And these are three simple steps of planting a banana. I hope it was helpful. Kindly leave your feedback in the comment section.