Few plants feel as much like home in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as a banana plant in the backyard. The leaves go under every festival meal, the flowers become poriyal, and a single bunch can feed the family and the neighbours. With the northeast monsoon bringing steady rain from October, this is a good season to plant a banana sucker. Here is a simple guide to choosing a variety and keeping your plant healthy until harvest.
Which banana variety should you grow?
Each local variety has its own taste and use in the kitchen. Pick the one your family eats most:
- Poovan (Mysore banana): the everyday sweet-tangy banana found in most Tamil homes. A dependable choice for first-time growers. See our Poovan banana plant.
- Rasthali (Silk banana): soft, fragrant and much loved as a table fruit and for festivals. See our Rasthali banana plant.
- Nendran (Kerala plantain): the long banana used for chips, steaming and cooking, and also eaten ripe. See our Nendran banana plant.
- Elakki (Ney Poovan): small, very sweet fruits that children love.
- Red banana (Sevvazhai): a special red-skinned variety that many families like to keep for its rich taste.
You can compare all of them in our Banana Plants collection.
Choosing the right spot
Banana plants grow best in full sun with shelter from strong wind. Choose an open part of the garden that gets sunlight for most of the day. Avoid low corners where rainwater collects: bananas need plenty of water, but standing water around the roots for days can cause rot, especially during heavy monsoon spells. A spot near a kitchen drain outlet is a traditional choice in many homes, as long as the soil drains freely.
Give each plant room to spread. Banana leaves are large, and plants grown too close together compete for light and are harder to look after.
Preparing the pit
- Dig a pit about 1.5 to 2 feet wide and deep.
- Mix the dug-out soil with a generous amount of well-rotted compost or farmyard manure. Bananas are heavy feeders and respond well to rich soil.
- If your soil is heavy clay, add some red soil and sand to improve drainage.
- Refill the pit, set the sucker in the centre at the same depth it was growing in its bag, press the soil firmly and water well.
Watering and feeding
- During the monsoon: rain usually does most of the work. Water only when the topsoil feels dry.
- In the dry months: bananas need regular, deep watering. Do not let the soil dry out completely in summer.
- Mulch: a thick layer of dry leaves or old banana leaves around the base keeps the soil moist and cool.
- Feeding: add compost or manure around the plant every month or two through the growing season.
Managing suckers
Banana plants keep sending up new shoots (suckers) from the base. If you let them all grow, the main plant gets weaker and the bunch stays small. A common home-garden practice is to keep the main plant and just one healthy follower sucker, and remove the rest by cutting them at ground level. The follower takes over after the main plant is harvested, giving you a continuous supply.
Monsoon and cyclone care
Strong winds along the Coromandel coast in November can bend or topple a plant once it starts carrying a heavy bunch. Support it with a strong bamboo or wooden prop on the side the bunch is leaning. Remove dry and torn leaves regularly, and keep the base clear of weeds.
Harvesting
Each banana stem flowers and fruits only once. Harvest the bunch when the fingers look full and rounded, then cut the old stem down so the follower sucker can take over. Many families also cut the banana flower (vazhaipoo) from the tip of the bunch for cooking once the fruit has formed.
Can you grow banana in a pot?
Bananas are big plants and do best in the ground. If you only have a terrace, use the largest, sturdiest container you can, with good drainage holes, and expect smaller bunches than garden-grown plants. Our heavy duty grower pots, made in Perambai, are built for outdoor use.
Start your banana patch this season
Dream Nursery grows and packs healthy banana plants at our nursery in Perambai, Puducherry, and delivers across India. Plant this monsoon, and in about a year you could be cutting your own home-grown bunch.