The Organic
Revival
Fruits · Herbaceous

Growing banana

Musa spp. · also called kelaBanana is a tall tropical herb planted from suckers or tissue-culture plants. It wants warmth, rich moist soil and plenty of water, and fruits about a year after planting, with ratoon crops from the suckers.

Cold desert: Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Far too cold and dry. NHB gives banana a range up to about 1,200 m and says growth slows at 20°C and below; this region lies much higher, with long freezing winters and little rain.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
A bunch of green bananas hanging from a banana plant, with palm fronds behind
Photo: Dinkum · CC0
Not suited here

Not a crop for this region

Far too cold and dry. NHB gives banana a range up to about 1,200 m and says growth slows at 20°C and below; this region lies much higher, with long freezing winters and little rain.6

Where it grows nearest

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Not suited here

Sowing now in:Deccan plateauSouth interior
  • Transplant
  • Harvest
  • Today
  • Not suited here
Cold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiNot suited hereTemperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluNot suited hereSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, Dehradun
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluNot suited hereSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratNot suited hereCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Cold desertNot suited here
Temperate HimalayaNot suited here
Sub-tropical foothillsLate February to early MarchApril to May of the next year
North-west plainsMid-February to early MarchApril to May
Gangetic plainsMay to JuneSeptember to October
North-east hills and valleysMarch to May
Arid westNot suited here
Central plateauMay to JuneSeptember to October
Deccan plateauJune to JulyOctober to NovemberFirst week of February
South interiorNovember to DecemberJanuary to FebruaryApril to May
West coastMay to JuneSeptember to October
East coastFebruary to AprilApril to May

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,6

    6.5 to 7.5

    Deep (0.5 to 1 m), rich, fertile, well-drained loam that holds moisture and has plenty of organic matter. Alluvial and volcanic soils suit it well. Standing water causes disease, and alkaline or saline soils are to be avoided.

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    Full sun in open fields. Plants also grow in light shade, as in coconut and arecanut gardens, but bunches are smaller.

  • Temperature6Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    Grows best at 20 to 35 °C

    Frost: none tolerated.

    Monthly temperatures for the Cold desert aren't in the library yet.

Good neighbours1,8,10

Keep it away from

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed15,18

Commercial bananas are seedless and are raised only from suckers, rhizomes or tissue culture. Take planting material from healthy, high-yielding clumps whose bunches carry at least 10 hands, since banana varies from plant to plant.

When the seed is ready

Choose sword suckers 2 to 4 months old with a well-developed base and narrow, sword-shaped leaves.

In Jalgaon, Basrai rhizomes are lifted after harvest and stored in a cool, dry place for about two months before planting. Pick conical rhizomes of 500 to 750 g and reject flat ones (NHB). MPKV's Jalgaon station found moderately large, straight, non-cylindrical rhizomes of 450 to 750 g the most suitable planting material.

After the last picking1,5,8

After harvest, cut the stem leaving a stump about 0.6 m tall; it keeps feeding the daughter sucker until it dries. Uproot, chop and burn plants attacked by stem weevil, and keep them out of manure pits.

Rotation

Do not replant banana in soil badly infected with wilt for 3 to 4 years. Grow paddy in the rotation, and keep sunflower and sugarcane out of it.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 1Banana: crop production guideTNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
  2. 10Banana: intercultural operationsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  3. 11Banana: irrigationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  4. 12Banana: manuring and fertilisationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  5. 13Banana: pestsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  6. 14Banana: plantingNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  7. 15Banana: propagationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  8. 16Banana: varietiesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  9. 6Banana: soil and climateNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  10. 7Banana: area under cultivationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  11. 8Banana: diseasesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
  12. 9Banana: harvestingNational Horticulture BoardRead the source

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