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.
North-east hills and valleys: Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Darjeeling
At a glance
Banana in the North-east hills and valleys
Across India
When to sow it
Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.
- Transplant
- Harvest
- Today
- Not suited here
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See the dates as a table
| Region | Sow | Nursery | Transplant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North-east hills and valleys | March to May | |||
| Temperate Himalaya | Not suited here | |||
| Cold desert | Not suited here | |||
| Sub-tropical foothills | Late February to early March | April to May of the next year | ||
| North-west plains | Mid-February to early March | April to May | ||
| Gangetic plains | May to JuneSeptember to October | |||
| Arid west | Not suited here | |||
| Central plateau | May to JuneSeptember to October | |||
| Deccan plateau | June to JulyOctober to NovemberFirst week of February | |||
| South interior | November to DecemberJanuary to FebruaryApril to May | |||
| West coast | May to JuneSeptember to October | |||
| East coast | February to AprilApril to May | |||
From seed to harvest
One season, day by day
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 North-east hills and valleys, 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 North-east hills and valleys aren't in the library yet.
Water and feeding
Watering19
Give about three irrigations a month in dry spells.
Weeding19
Grow one crop of cowpea and work it into the soil, and hand weed every 30 days until the bunch emerges.
| When | What | How much | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planting | FYM | 12 kg per plant | In the pit |
| Planting, high density | FYM | 18 kg per pit | For three plants in a 1 m pit, mixed with topsoil |
| Integrated feeding | Azospirillum and PSB | 25 g each per plant |
Varieties and yield
30 to 40 tonnes a hectare
Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.
Jahaji
Dwarf Cavendish type
Chenichampa
Medium tall
Malbhog
Medium tall
Bar Jahaji
Medium tall
Kachkal (Pura Kal)
Tall, cooking banana
Manohar
Tall
Jati
Tall
Bhimkal
Tall
Keep it away from
Organic and cultural controls only.
Corm borer and nematodes
Signs
Grubs tunnel through the corm, which rots. Leaves yellow, wither and die early, and yields fall.
What to do
- Scrape out infested tissue from the corm with a sharp knife before planting
Prevention
- Plant healthy corms
Leaf and fruit scarring beetle
Signs
Beetles eat young leaves and the skin of young fruit, leaving scarred, spotted fingers. Worst in the rainy season.
What to do
- Bag the bunch in muslin or blue polythene before fruit set and remove it after 60 days
Pseudostem borer
Signs
Sap oozes from small holes in the stem with a black mass. The grubs feed inside the stem, and a badly attacked plant dies. Most active in summer and the monsoon.
What to do
- Uproot and burn badly attacked plants
- Keep the plantation clean of dry leaves and old stems
Banana aphid
Signs
Yellowish-green aphids on the underside of leaves suck sap; parts turn discoloured and misshapen. This aphid spreads bunchy top.
Prevention
- Take suckers only from healthy clumps in places without bunchy top
- Dig out bunchy top plants at once so the aphid has nothing to spread
Bunchy top
Signs
New leaves come narrow, upright, pale and brittle with rolled-up edges, and dark green broken streaks run along the veins and midrib. The plant stays stunted and gives no useful bunch. Dwarf types are very susceptible.
What to do
- Uproot and bury infected plants
Prevention
- Never take planting material from places where the disease occurs
Panama wilt (Fusarium wilt)
Signs
Older leaves yellow from the edges, hang down around the stem and wither. A cut stem shows yellow to reddish streaks, darker towards the rhizome. Worst in poor, light, wet or badly drained soil cropped with banana year after year.
What to do
- Uproot and burn badly affected plants
- Put quick lime near the base of the plant and water it in
- Add Trichoderma viride or Pseudomonas fluorescens to the soil
Prevention
- Do not replant banana in badly infected soil for at least 3 to 4 years
- Use clean planting material and resistant varieties
- Grow paddy in the rotation, and keep sunflower and sugarcane out of it
Sigatoka leaf spot
Signs
Light yellow spots on the leaves grow into oval dark brown spots with a dead grey centre and a brown ring. Spots join and kill large parts of the leaf. Spreads in rain and dew above about 21°C.
What to do
- Improve drainage and keep weeds down
- Remove diseased suckers
Prevention
- Keep the right spacing so the plants stay airy
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 picking19
Remove all suckers until the bunch emerges, then keep one sword sucker for the ratoon. In high-density blocks, plant new suckers between the rows after the main harvest and dig their pits before it.
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.
- Banana: crop production guideTNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
- Banana: intercultural operationsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: irrigationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: manuring and fertilisationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: pestsNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: plantingNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: propagationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: varietiesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: package of practicesKrishi Vigyan Kendra Dibrugarh, Assam Agricultural UniversityRead the source
- Banana: soil and climateNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: area under cultivationNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: diseasesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Banana: harvestingNational Horticulture BoardRead the source
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