Crop management (Bananas)

1. Weeding:
   • Remove any plants or weeds that are growing on the planting site, to ensure manure and fertilizer used to the plant are  productive and avoid the pest and disease,
   • Mulching also protect the farm against pert and disease.
2. Thinning:
   • Remove dead leaves and banana plants and chop them up to place around the live plants. Other yard waste and wood ash can also be added to return nutrients to the soil.
   • De-sucker your plants. Once your plant is mature and has several suckers, remove all but one to improve fruit yield and plant health.
   • Cut all but one sucker off at ground level and cover the exposed plant with soil. Repeat with a deeper cut if they grow back.
   • The surviving sucker is called the follower and will replace the mother plant after it produces the banana bunch.
   • Exceptionally healthy plants can support two followers.
3. Banana fertilization
   • Use fertilizer, compost, manure, or a mixture of these. Add fertilizer immediately after planting in an even ring around the banana plant and repeat at monthly intervals.
   • Fertilizers are usually labeled with three numbers (N-P-K) representing the amount of Nitrogen, Phosphorus (Potash), and Potassium. Bananas require very high amounts of Potassium, but the other nutrients are important as well. You can use a balanced fertilizer (three numbers roughly equal) or a fertilizer that addresses deficiencies in your soil.
   • Do not use manure produced in the last few weeks, as the heat it releases while decomposing can damage the plant
   • If you do not have manure, use banana leaves or another grasses that can be decomposed quickly.
4. Watering/ Irrigation:

• Water frequently but avoid overwatering.
•  Lack of water is a common cause of banana plant death, but overwatering can cause the roots to rot.
• In warm growing weather without rain, you may need to water your plant daily, but only if the top 1.5–3 cm of soil is dry.
• Reduce the amount of water per session if the plant is sitting in water for long periods. (That can cause root rot).
• In cooler temperatures when the banana is barely growing, you may only need to water once every week or two. Remember to check soil moisture.
• Leaves help evaporate excess moisture, so be careful not to soak (just moisten) a young plant that has not yet grown leaves.

1. Mulching:

Mulch is dry, vegetative material used to cover the soil.  It helps reduce evaporation and retain moisture, reduce soil erosion, suppress weed growth and provide plant nutrients as the material decomposes. 

• What are the advantages of mulching?
  • Mulch keeps the soil underneath moist longer than bare soil.
  • Controls soil erosion by cushioning the impact of rain drops and by slowing runoff.
  • Suppresses weeds by shading them out.
  • Leads to healthy crop growth.
• What are the disadvantages?
  • Mulching is labour-intensive.
  • It can introduce new pests and diseases into a field.
  • Mulch material may not be available.

• How to do it: 

• Carry to the Field the material you want to spread as mulch. 
•  Spread it on the soil using your hands or a rake. Put a layer of mulch 7-15 cm (3-6 inches) deep all over the bed, or around the growing plants.
• Do not put on so much mulch that you bury the plants or shade them out. 
• Use dry plant material that does not rot quickly.
• Do not use wet or green material as mulch.

1. Debudding:
   • When?
     • Once the banana fingers have all come out, remove the bud. 
   • Why?
     •  To remove the bud protects the banana plant against Banana BXW disease
     • The bunches grows properly once the bud is removed.