WHAT ARE BANANAS?

Bananas are delicious botanical berries produced by many species of big herbal flowering plants of the genus Moses. Bananas used for cooking, as opposed to dessert bananas, are sometimes referred to as plantains in some countries. When mature, the fruit varies in size, color, and hardness, but it is normally long and curved, with a soft starch content covered with skin that is green, yellow, red, purple, or brown. Fruits develop in clusters on the plant's canopy.

Banana plants are often cultivated on farms or in the backyard on their own. The vast volume of fruit produced by this plant is one of its distinguishing features. Bananas are also known to be a source of food for monkeys. Bananas are a high-nutrient fruit that is high in vitamins, minerals, and carbs. Banana fruit has a high potassium level, which is one of its benefits.

PREPARATION OF BANANA SEEDS

Seedlings should be sourced from disease-free soils and from healthy parent trees. Fusarium withering infections and withering bacteria should be absent. Seeds can be obtained from buds, the base of banana stems, or tissue culture. Seedlings from big saplings (30 cm) can be harvested and planted immediately using machetes.

This is how to grow bananas from the base of a banana tree (Wijayanto, 2006):

  • Seedlings from the base of a banana tree are placed in a mixed soil medium with sand (1: 1).
  • After one week the seedlings begin to take root and are transferred to the polybag.
  • Two months later the seedlings are ready to be transplanted to the planting pit in the garden (1 seedling per hole). Crop distance is 2.5 m x 2.5 m.
  • Planting in the garden should be done at the beginning of the rainy season so that the soil is constantly moist.

FERTILIZATION

Fertilization should begin as soon as fresh seedlings are planted. Begin planting by placing the root booster's manure in the hole before planting. Fertilization is done after the plants have been planted for one month. The fertilizer used is either biological fertilizer or compost fertilizer. Fertilization is done in a way that is sewn around the trees. 

Fertilizing is done by digging trenches around trees with a depth of 10-15 cm and a minimum spacing of 50 cm from trees. During the preparation of planting holes, organic fertilizer is applied at a rate of 10 kg per planting hole. Make sure the area around the tree is free of grass and weeds.

WATER MANAGEMENT

Banana trees need water of 8-12 liters per day.  Usually, bananas are not supplied with irrigation but it gets water supply from storage in the soil or from rainwater.

PEST AND DISEASES

Leafworms are the most prevalent pest that attacks banana trees. The leaves of a banana tree attacked by this leaf caterpillar coil up like sheaths, with traces of food consumed all the way to the leaf's bone. As a result, it's critical to keep an eye out for caterpillars on banana leaves and to toss them out.

Banana trees can also have fungal and bacterial diseases, which make it difficult for them to produce fruit or produce fruit that is damaged. The fungus Fusarium or the bacteria Xanthomonas causes the leaves of a banana tree to wither or become reddish, and this is caused by the fungus Fusarium or the bacterium Xanthomonas.

HARVEST

Within 7-10 months of sowing, bananas will squat. Mas bananas take six to seven months to grow, with the fruit available eight weeks afterward. Banana Berangan will take nine months to mature after planting, and the fruit will be ready in 11-12 weeks. Cut down a banana tree around 0.5 metres away from the fruit bunches to protect the produce. Cut it off a little, while the other hand holds the bunch of bananas so that the fruit does not crash on the ground.

BANANA FRUIT MATURITY INDEX

  • Dark green whole. The fruit is not yet ripe to be poured.‎
  • Green with a little yellow. Ripe fruit, it is suitable to be poured for remote delivery using ships.‎
  • ‎Greener than yellow. Ripe fruit, not suitable for delivery away by ship
  • ‎More yellow than green. Fruit almost ripens. Only suitable for the local market.‎
  • ‎Yellow with a little green at the end of the fruit. Ripe fruits, suitable only for the local market.‎
  • Overall yellow. Cooked fruit. Only suitable for the local market. Best rating to eat fresh.‎
  • ‎Orange-yellow. The fruit is too ripe. Only suitable for the local market and very short shelf life.‎