Real World Gardener: Bountiful Bananas for Your Kitchen Garden

Friday, 25 June 2021

Bountiful Bananas for Your Kitchen Garden

KITCHEN GARDEN

Banana Growing parts 1 & 2

Did you know that bananas are the world's largest herb. Have you ever wondered if it would be possible to grow your own bananas?

You may have seen the plants for sale in a couple of plant catalogues and thought to give it a try, but never got around to it.
Would it help if I told you that a number of gardeners around Australia already do it and it’s surprisingly not that difficult.

I'm growing the sugar banana or "Musa 'Ducasse.' The flower is pictured here and yes, it's a big plant.
The trunk is actually layers of tissue that are wrapped like a swiss roll.

The key to fruiting is keeping the amount of stems or suckers down to a manageable number so the plant doesn't take over your garden.

A good number is three which includes the mother plant which has an active flowers on it, then one sucker, and a smaller sucker.

Get rid of all the others by chopping them to the ground.

Once the mother plant has finished flowering, it won't produce anymore, so cut the stem to the ground and mulch it up for the garden.

Banana 'Ducasse' growing in my garden photo M Cannon

NOTE: You have to buy banana plants from a QABN-Quality Approved Banana Nursery, that way you are buying a disease free plant.

You can't just take a sucker from somebody else's garden.

Bananas do like a lot of moisture so during periods of drought, the banana plant do not throw as many flowers.

The other suggestions which I thought was worth a try, is to bury some kitchen scraps in the ground near the main stem of your banana plant.

Have a listen to find out more.

I'm talking with Toni Salter https://theveggielady.com/growing-backyard-bananas/

If you want more information about bananas why not email realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

Growing Bananas part 2

Harvesting your bananas

Now it's time to get down to the pointy end of growing bananas.
It is really easy to grow those banan plants so don't be discouraged.

You may remember that the banana plant is actually the world’s largest herb and the stem is known as false stem or pseudo stem because it consists of compact cluster of overlapping and spirally arranged leaf sheaths.
No bark, or cambium layer at all.

So what else is there to banana growing?

How much fertiliser?

To get your bananas ready for harvest, fertilise your banana plants well.

Fertilise well with a bucket of organic fertiliser around the base every month in the warmer months.

Or the permaculture way is to dig a pit right next to the trunk and put in fresh food scraps. Cover well so your chickens or rats and mice can't dig the scraps up.It does take quite a while, up to 6 months for the bananas to ripen after the fruits appear.
You can take down the whole bunch, but for the home gardener, that is too many bananas that will ripen at once.

Instead, take off a single hand at a time, and bring them into the kitchen to ripen.

Looking at the photo on the right, you can see that there are layers or groups of bananas that make up the whole bunch.
Each layer can consist of up to 10 or more individual bananas or 'fingers' that are connected at the same point. This layer is called a 'hand.'
Several hands make up a banana bunch.

Fertilise well with a bucket of organic fertiliser around the base every month.

Or the permaculture way is to dig a pit right next to the trunk and put in fresh food scraps. Cover well so your chickens or rats and mice can't dig the scraps up.

The big tip is to be patient because it can take up to 6 months before your bananas become ripe.

The other tip is the whole bunch is harvested when the angles on the fruit have almost disappeared and the fruit is evenly filled.

You can also take off a hand of bananas and see if they ripen in your kitchen perhaps in a brown paper bag.

Have a listen to the podcast.