How to Plant and Care for Banana Plants

Banana is one of the most famous fruits in Indonesia. Bananas can be eaten directly when ripe and can be processed into various dishes when raw and ripe.

Sometimes it is made compote, steamed, or fried. The delicious taste makes various processed bananas almost every day. Not only because of the delicious taste of the fruit, but also because the stems, leaves, heart, and roots can also be used.

Bananas are usually found growing wild in remote villages. Left alone, on the side of the road, grows, bears fruit, until it dies.

In fact, cultivating a plant with the Latin name Musa paradisiaca can provide promising prospects. Why? The reason is, the demand for bananas in every area, whether in villages, urban areas, hotel-level places, to international standard restaurants continues to flood and does not stop.

The demand for fruit stock also increases from year to year, making banana farmers feel overwhelmed by the continuous demand.

Planting and caring for banana trees

Banana trees can grow on any land where their nutritional needs are met. The picture above is one of the cultivation of various types of bananas in the school yard.

So, are you interested in cultivating it? Besides being able to be consumed alone, it can also be used as a place of business. Moreover, to plant and care for banana trees is very easy.

1. Determine the best land or location

Bananas thrive in the tropics where a year-round supply of sunlight and water is available. Therefore, an area with a tropical climate is needed if you want to get good quality banana trees.

Banana trees grow well if they are in the highlands or lowlands. The point is 2500 meters above sea level. Then the soil is cultivated to have a neutral pH. In addition, it requires 1500 to 3000 mm/year of rainfall. For maximum results, the soil is loosened and mixed with nutrients first

2. Determine the Selection of Seeds

Because bananas have many close relatives. So choosing the right type of banana for the type you want is a good thing. Bananas are usually grown generatively or by using shoots. For the selection of the best tree tops are:

Upright shoots with a size of 100 cm to 150 cm.

Cut the tubers with a diameter of 15-20 cm.

Bulbs are clean of dirt or plant moss.

The first step

Loosen the land using a hoe or plow where the banana tree will be planted. But before that, first clear the land of wild plants such as weeds that can damage the growth of banana plants later. Once loosened, apply compost and nutrients all over the field. Leave for 1 week to wait for the soil to mix with the nutrients.

Make on the ground with a size of 30x30x40 cm with a distance of 3 x3 M in each tree. After that make good drainage for the irrigation system, namely by making a trench around the plant hole. This is so that the shoots are maintained without damaging the plant roots.

Second stage

Plant the banana tree seeds in a perpendicular direction so that later the banana tree grows firmly.

Plant the shoots in the ground. It is recommended to plant banana trees at the beginning of the rainy season. This aims to provide an adequate supply of water to the banana shoots that you plant.

Pay attention to the position of the shoots that are planted. Direct it perpendicularly so that the newly planted shoots do not fall easily because of the wind. Then cover the shoots again with soil that has been mixed with compost to provide sufficient nutrient intake to start growing.

4. Treatment

After planting, to get maximum banana fruit production, the things that must be considered are as follows:

Follow-up fertilization. After the banana plant is 6 months old, additional fertilization is needed. This is done to increase the supply of nutrients in the soil. Use manure or NPK.

Follow-up fertilization is carried out when the banana shoots planted are 6 months old.

Irrigation. When not dry, banana trees do not need regular watering. But in the dry season, banana trees need more water.

Weeding. Wild plants can inhibit the growth of banana trees well. So watch the growth of this weed and get rid of it immediately.