Bananas

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Climate and soil

Temperatures of 20-30 degrees celsius. Single monsoon season lasting four months from June to September. Rainfall amount 700 mm/year. Basaltic soil (black cotton soil).

Seed to plant

Banana trees propagate vegetatively at a high pace and are regularly culled. Request a farmer for some of these culled stalks (pups). Insert stalks in the mud. ‘Elaichi kela’ grows tall and falls with high winds so we preferred ‘Amrutpani kela’ instead. Banana trees need a lot of water. Water once a day.

Timeline and harvest

Plant all year round (avoid peak summer). Stalk to flower 6 months. Flower to fruit 5 months. 10 x 7 feet area gives a dozen trees through self-propagation from one stalk. Each tree flowers and fruits only once. Gives 8 dozen bananas. Rs. 1250 harvest from each tree. These are fruit bananas and not used for cooking. The flower and stems are edible and can be used for cooking.

Treatment

Jeevamrutha - 1 part cow dung + 1 part cow urine + 0.2 parts jaggery + 0.2 parts pulse flour and some soil. Cover, keep in shade, mix thrice a day. Incubate and use. Apply once a month.

Ecosystem function

Banana trees provide shade and hold soil.

Nutrition

High in fibre, potassium, vitamins B6 and C, antioxidants.

Storage

No need for stalk storage. Trees propagate easily and in fact need to be culled periodically. Share the fruit with neighbours, monkeys and elephants! We have not found a good way to store the fruit. You can cook the flower instead of letting it fruit, if it seems likely that many trees will fruit at once.

Bananas recipes

Banana flower fry

Banana stem and curd chutney

View all recipes!