Spacing Your Banana Leaf Plant The Key to a Beautiful and Healthy Garden
Lush, tropical banana leaf plants can transform any outdoor space into an exotic oasis. But proper spacing is crucial to keep your plants – and garden – looking their best. Follow these spacing guidelines and growing tips for a flawlessly healthy and productive banana leaf garden.
Plan Ahead for Plant Size
Banana plants seem small at first, but they grow rapidly into giant herbs up to 20 feet tall with leaves spanning 15 feet wide. Check the mature size before planting to allow enough room to reach full stature Compact 4-8 foot varieties like Maia Maoli or Little Prince are better choices for smaller gardens.
Space Generously Between Plants
Crowding stresses banana plants, reducing growth, yield and disease resistance. Give each plant ample breathing room according to its expected mature spread. As a rule of thumb, space plants:
- 8-10 feet apart for petite varieties under 6 feet tall
- 10-15 feet apart for mid-sized varieties up to 10 feet tall
- 15-20 feet apart for full-size varieties over 10 feet tall
Wider spacing up to 20 feet prevents overcrowding even for smaller plants. This allows easy access for care and harvesting too. Dig holes and enrich soil with compost before planting.
Arrange in Groups for Visual Impact
While banana plants need sufficient spacing, planting in clumps or rows creates a showstopping tropical look. Group at least 3 plants together in triangular or linear formations. Repeat groupings down rows or beds. The bold shapes and big leaves make quite an impression massed together.
Edge with Lower Plants
Pairing banana leaf plants with shorter ornamentals up front hides unappealing bare trunks. Choose edge plants 18-24 inches tall like lantana, zinnias or creeping Jenny. This contrasts beautifully with the huge banana leaves towering above.
Allow Room for Offshoots
Bananas produce new plants called suckers or pups at the base after fruiting. These offspring quickly sprout and must be transplanted or removed. Allow extra space around each banana plant to accommodate 1-2 generations of suckers before transplanting.
Plant Against Walls or Fences
Tuck bananas along a south or west-facing wall to reflect heat for faster growth. The wall supports and shelters plants in windy areas. Position suckers in front to replace aging plants against the wall. Bananas also look great planted near fences for vertical interest and support.
Leave Access Paths
Incorporate 3-4 feet wide access paths between banana groupings. This permits easy care and allows bananas to fill in impressively on both sides. Wheelbarrows and harvest carts need space to transport fruit and heavier tools like tillers. Avoid planting bananas where access is limited.
Adjust Spacing Over Time
As plants grow each season, space may become tight leading to issues like diseases from humidity. Remove suckers or excess plants to open up the area and improve air circulation. Transplant extras elsewhere to expand your banana patch each year.
Proper spacing, arrangement and planning allows your banana leaf plants to grow vigorously into an enchanting tropical garden. Follow these simple rules for optimal health, beauty and bountiful harvests from this exotic fruiting plant. Give your bananas room to thrive and enjoy their stunning Eden-like appeal for years to come!
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/indoor-banana-plant-615d519579014b9db8f32b704d46b849.jpg)
How To Grow Banana Plants And Keep Them Happy
Growing bananas does not take much effort, but it does require that you get a few things right when you first get started…
Banana plants can offer many benefits:
- They make great windbreaks or screens,
- they can keep the sun of the hot western side of your house,
- they utilize the water and nutrients in waste drains (think washing water or outdoor shower),
- the leaves can be fed to horses, cows and other grazers,
- the dried remains of the trunks can be used for weaving baskets and mats.
Oh, and they give you bananas. Lots of bananas!
But when I look around friends gardens then I see some pretty sad looking banana plants growing there. It helps to understand what bananas like and dislike if you want them to be happy!
Banana plants like:
- Rich, dark, fertile soils.
- Lots of mulch and organic matter. LOTS. Just keep piling it on.
- Lot of nitrogen and potassium. (Chicken manure!)
- Steady warmth, not too hot and not too cold. (Bananas are sissies when it comes to temperatures…)
- Steady moisture, in the ground and in the air.
- The shelter of other bananas! Thats the most overlooked aspect by home growers…
Banana plants dislike:
- Strong winds.
- Extreme heat or cold.
- Being hungry or thirsty.
- Being alone and exposed.
More detail on all that below.
Cavendish is the variety that you know from the supermarket. If you live near a banana growing region, this is the variety you see in the plantations. It is a stout plant that produces large heavy bunches.
Lady Fingers are very tall and slender plants and have smaller, sweeter fruit. They are often grown by gardeners as ornamental plants with the small fruit being a bonus.
Plantains are cooking bananas. They are drier and more starchy. You use them green like you would use potatoes, and they taste similar. 80% of all bananas grown in the world are plantain varieties! They are an important staple food in many tropical countries.
There are many other exotic varieties, but those above are the most popular and most commonly grown.
What I describe below and most of the pictures on this page refer to Cavendish bananas but the advice applies to all other varieties as well.
How Do Bananas Grow?
Bananas are not real trees, not even palm trees, even though they are often called banana palms. Bananas are perennial herbs. (Gingers, heliconias and bird-of-paradise flowers are distant relatives of bananas. They are in the same order, Zingiberales.)
Banana trunks consists of all the leaf stalks wrapped around each other. New leaves start growing inside, below the ground. They push up through the middle and emerge from the centre of the crown. So does the flower, which finally turns into a bunch of bananas.
Here is a picture series showing how the flower looks at first, and how the bananas appear and curl up towards the light.
Those pictures were taken over the course of a few days. You can pretty much watch this happen. But now it will take another two months or so, depending on the temperature, for the fruit to fill out and finally ripen.
A banana plant takes about 9 months to grow up and produce a bunch of bananas. Then the mother plant dies. But around the base of it are many suckers or pups, little baby plants.
At the base of a banana plant, under the ground, is a big rhizome called the corm.
The rhizome has many growing points and those turn into new suckers/pups. The suckers can be taken off and transplanted, and one or two can be left in position to replace the mother plant.
Great, so now you know what to do once you have bananas growing in your garden, but how do you start?
4 Tips To Grow The Most BEAUTIFUL Banana Plants EVER Down To ZONE 5!
FAQ
How far apart should banana plants be planted?
What is the best spacing for bananas?
Do banana leaf plants like sun or shade?
Where is the best place to plant banana trees?