Banana: Planting and Package of Practices

The banana, Musa paradisica L. 🍌🌱, is the oldest fruit in India and a member of the Musaceae family. It is native to Southeast Asia 🌏🌴. In India, it is second only to the mango in terms of fruit consumption 🇮🇳🥭. There are banana farms in several Indian states 🏞️. Eastern India (Assam, Bihar) 🌄, Western India (Gujarat, Maharashtra) 🌅, and South India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka) 🌴🌊. In this article, the entire Banana POP has been covered 🍌📰.

To develop a healthy crop of bananas 🌱🍌, it is crucial to adhere to the recommended measures 📏🌱. In addition to being a significant supply of carbohydrates and vitamin B 🥭🍞, bananas are also a good source of potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium 🍌🥇. It assists in lowering the risk of kidney illnesses, arthritis, gastroenteritis, heart disease, and gout 💪❤️🍌. Bananas can be processed to make chips, puree, jam, jelly, etc. 🍌🍟🍯🥫.

Overview of the banana crop

• Musa sp., also known as Musa paradisica L. 🍌🌱
• Common names include "Apple of Paradise," "Adam fig," and "Bale" (Kannada) 🍎🌴🍌
• Crop seasons are Rabi and Kharif 🌾🌦️
• Type of crop: agricultural crop 🌱🌾
• 2021 Banana Production: 30.50 tonnes per hectare 📈🍌
• 14.20 mt/ha is the estimated annual yield of bananas 📊🍌
• 3.78 t will be exported in 2021 🚢🍌
• Alluvial and volcanic soil, black loam, coastal sandy loams, and red lateritic soil are required types of soil 🌱🌍l.

When to plant the banana crop

• A tropical crop, the banana thrives in temperatures between 15°C and 35°C with relative humidity levels between 75–85%.
• With a pH range of 6.5 to 7.5, loamy soils are suitable for growing bananas.
• A minimum of 650 to 750 mm of rainfall is required.

Growing a banana crop

• The delicate and fragile nature of banana roots calls for thorough grinding of banana plantations.
• Use deep plowing and harrowing to get the soil to a fine tilth. 
• 60x 60x 45 cm trenches are dug, and 0.5–1 kilogram of neem cake and 5–10 kg of thoroughly decomposed FYM compost are added to the pits.
• At the time of banana planting, apply carbofuran pit or phorate 10-G @ 10–12 g/pit.

Kharif season intervals -1.5 × 1.5 meters; 2.2 m; OR 2.5 m.

Rabi –1.5 x 1.2 meters and 1.5 x 1.37

Banana plantation planting season 

June through July is the best period to sow bananas. Time your planting so that flowering won't coincide with winter or a cold temperature.

Banana farming irrigation timetable

After planting bananas, immediately begin irrigation.

After planting, provide lighting. On days when it rains, stop irrigation. 

Create a 45 cm-diameter ring basin to contain each plant.

Use of fertilizers and manures

• By gently digging in a ring pattern, spread fertilizer 5-8 cm below the soil's surface.
• Sl.No. Days following planting
• gm/plant of fertilizer to be used
• Micronutrients Urea SSP MOP MgSo4
• 1 At the time of planting, 100 50 were planted; 2 were 30 50 100 50; 3 were 60 100 100 90; 4 were 90 100 100 90; 5 were 120; 6 were 150; 7 were 180; and 8 were 200.
• During bunch emergence

Micronutrients

• It has been discovered that adding micronutrients like Zn, Mn, and Fe improves yield and bunch quality. 
• In the third and fifth months, two administrations of micronutrient (with a commercial preparation) consisting of Zn (0.1%), Mn (0.1%), and Boron (0.005%) are to be provided. 

Operation across cultures

• Keep weeds from growing in the field.
• To prevent water standing in the row during the rainy season, prepare elevated beds all along the row.
• Before the bunch emerges, remove all side suckers.
• Trim the diseased and dry leaves frequently.
• The final banana leaf is pulled over the cluster to shield it from blazing sunlight.

Crop protection in banana farming

One pest is the rhizome weevil.

1. Rhizome weevil:

Symptoms: 

• Before burrowing into the leaf sheaths, young grubs first tunnel along the leaf's surface. 
• The pseudostem, rhizome/corm, base of suckers, and roots all became infected as the infection spread.
• The affected plants exhibit yellowing, wilting, and reduced fruit production in addition to their leaves.
• To weak to severe breezes, infected plants drop their leaves

Management: 

• Choose wholesome suckers from a reliable banana farm.
• 2 grams of carbofuran per plant are applied to the soil.
• When growing bananas, use 20gm of furadan 3G or 0.5kg of neem cake per pit.
• Before planting, suckers need to be soaked in a 0.1% quinalphos emulsion.
• Release predatory ants since Tetramorium spp. and the bigheaded ant are the main enemies of the banana weevil.

2. Lesion Nematode

Symptoms:

• Reddish-brown to black, elongated lesions that are easily seen when the roots are torn apart are caused by lesion nematode infection. Eventually, roots turn black and perish.

• Nematode attacks cause secondary rot organisms to become infected and damage or weaken a large portion of the root system.
• Plants that are infected become weak and produce poor fruit.
• Such plants are easily blown over, exposing the roots to the strong wind

Cultural Control:

• To stop the primary source of infection in the banana farm, stay away from infected suckers.
• Remove all dark or discolored patches from the corm tissue with a spoon, leaving only the white, clean tissues behind.
• Hot water heated to 53–54°C should be applied to the cleaned suckers for 20–25 minutes.
• Grow marigold as an intercrop to act as a trap and repellent crop.
• After tilling and irrigation, covering the field for 6 to 8 weeks with plastic increases soil warmth, which kills nematode eggs and juveniles.
• Apply Furadan 3G @ 20 g, Phorate 10G @ 12 gms, or neem cake @ 500 g/pit when planting bananas.

 Diseases

1. Anthracnose

Symptoms:

• Ideally at the distal end of the newborn banana fruits, the fungus first assaults them.
• On the diseased fruits, tiny, round black dots first appear. The patches then get larger and turn brown in color.
• The banana's outer peel darkens and shrivels before developing the recognizable pink acervuli. In the end, the entire finger is impacted. Later, the disease spreads and impacts the entire group.
• Fruit that is infected with pathogens begins to ripen before it is ready, shriveling the fruits that are coated in pink spore masses.

Management:

• Spray the fruit with a 1% Bordeaux mixture while it's still young.
• Spraying four times at fortnightly intervals with carbendazim 0.1% or chlorothalonil 0.2% before banana harvest is very successful.
• Fruits should be dipped in mycostatin (440 ppm) or carbendazim (400 ppm) after harvest.
• Following harvest, the bunches are carefully preserved at a temperature between 7 and 100 °C while being transported to the storehouse.

2. Banana Bunchy Top

Symptoms:

• Dark green streaks first form in the veins of the lowest part of the midrib and stem of the leaf.
• Zones of light green can be visible between the lamina and the midrib.
• New leaves may occasionally appear, although they are often smaller, wavy rather than flat, and have yellow (chlorotic) leaf margins due to the older plants' BBTV infection.
• The illness is known as "bunchy top of banana" because they seem to be "bunched" at the top of the plant.
• Banana hands and fingers that do bear fruit from severely infected banana trees are likely to be deformed and twisted.
• Avoid growing bananas near sugarcane fields and other locations with cucurbitaceous plants because these plants are good breeding grounds for the cucurbit mosaic virus or sugarcane mosaic virus.
• Give a 4 ml injection of Fernoxone solution (50g in 400 ml of water) to the diseased banana plant.
• Place the Fernoxone capsules, each of which contains 200–400 mg of chemical, within the pseudostem.

3. Panama Wilt:

Symptoms:

• The bottom leaves of the majority of types turn light yellow and wilt, with the margins becoming particularly conspicuous. They finally turn brilliant yellow, their leaf edges turning lifeless.
• Affected plants may have a spiky appearance in the later stages of the illness as a result of large upright apical leaves that contrast with the skirt of dead lower leaves.
• A cross-section of an infected plant reveals a circular pattern of discoloration around the rhizome's center.
• When the plant is sliced longitudinally, consistent lines of discoloration are visible as symptoms advance into the pseudo-stem.

Management:

• Develop hardy cultivars like Poovan and Nendran.
• Avoid vulnerable cultivars including Rasthali, Monthan, Karpuravalli, Kadali, Rasakadali, and Pachanadan, among others.
• Particularly during the wet season, provide good drainage.
• Application of Carbendazim 2% as an injection or 50 ml of a capsule.
• Paring and pralinage, which involves removing the roots and outer layer of the corm and dipping the suckers in a solution containing 0.2% carbendazim plus 14 ml per liter of water, is an efficient method for getting rid of the infection. Suckers may be coated in clay slurry and dusted with 40g/corm of carbofuran granules.
• Beginning five months after banana planting, soil drenching with Carbendazim 50% WP solution alternated with Propiconazole 25% EC around the pseudostem should be done every two months.
• Neem cake application at a rate of 250 kg/ha.
• Software Pseudomonas

Yielding and Harvesting

Depending on the cultivar, bundles mature 100 to 150 days after flowering.