August 7, 2004
Question: I planted four banana suckers about a year ago. We were surprised several weeks ago to find that one of them fruiting. It has a stem with about 50 small green bananas and though the blossoms continue to open, they fall to the ground without producing more bananas. Is there anything I can do to prompt it to produce more fruits? There are also two to three suckers growing at the base of each of the old plants. I would like to remove all but one to replace each old plant. Will this damage the mature bananas?
- Jim H., Bonita Beach
Answer: There are only so much fruits a banana bunch can produce. After the maximum amount of fruits are borne, the long stem, holding hands of fruits will continue to lengthen but all flowers thereafter are sterile. There is nothing to be done to force it to produce more fruits. Removing some of the suckers from around the mother plant is a good idea. The practice will enhance the remaining sucker. However, you must know what suckers to remove. Some suckers are sterile while other are fertile. Suckers that readily open their floppy leaves are barren. Others that emerge thick and pointed, with slow to open leaves are known as spears and are fruitful. For maximum fruit production, a clump should have no more than four to five mature plants, and four to five replacement suckers.
Stephen Brown is a horticulture agent with the Lee County Extension.
To submit questions call the horticulture desk at 461-7504 between 9 a.m. and 4
p.m. or via e-mail at
shb@mail.ifas.ufl.edu. Listen to the ‘Garden Show’ at 8 a.m. on
1200-AM WINK/WNOG.