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.

South interior: Bengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil Nadu

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.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

At a glance

Banana in the South interior

  • Season

    Garden land: planted November to February1

  • Sowing to last picking

    Bunches are ready 12 to 15 months after planting, 100 to 150 days after flowering, depending on the variety, soil, weather and height above sea level.1

  • Plant out

    November to December1

Across India

When to sow it

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

Sow now

The window here is November to December.

Sowing now in:Deccan plateau
  • Transplant
  • Harvest
  • Today
  • Not suited here
South interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal AndhraWest coastKerala, Goa, Konkan
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluNot suited hereCold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiNot 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 KarnatakaWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
South interiorNovember to DecemberJanuary to FebruaryApril to May
Temperate HimalayaNot suited here
Cold desertNot 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
West coastMay to JuneSeptember to October
East coastFebruary to AprilApril to May

From seed to harvest

One season, day by day

Days from sowing

  1. Before sowing

    Bacillus subtilis

    25 g per plant · Planting

    Neem cake

    1.5 t per hectare · Also checks nematodes · One month after planting

    Press mud

    15 t per hectare · One month after planting

    Sunn hemp green manure1

    Sow between rows and dig in about a month later · 45 days after planting

Water at planting and again 4 days later, then weekly on garden land. On drip, TNAU gives 5 to 10 litres per plant a day up to the fourth month, 10 to 15 litres from the fifth month to bunch emergence, and 15 litres from bunch emergence to 15 days before harvest. Water well after each manuring.1

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 South interior, 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 South interior aren't in the library yet.

Water and feeding

Watering1

Water at planting and again 4 days later, then weekly on garden land. On drip, TNAU gives 5 to 10 litres per plant a day up to the fourth month, 10 to 15 litres from the fifth month to bunch emergence, and 15 litres from bunch emergence to 15 days before harvest. Water well after each manuring.

Drip: planting to month 4, 5 to 10 L per plant a day; month 5 to bunch emergence, 10 to 15 L; bunch emergence to 15 days before harvest, 15 L.

Weeding1

On garden land dig and earth up once a month. Legume vegetables, beetroot, elephant foot yam and sunn hemp can be grown between the rows; avoid cucurbits.

WhenWhatHow muchHow
PlantingBacillus subtilis25 g per plant
One month after plantingNeem cake1.5 t per hectareAlso checks nematodes
One month after plantingPress mud15 t per hectare
45 days after plantingSunn hemp green manureSow between rows and dig in about a month later

Sources1

Varieties and yield

Typical range1

50 to 60 tonnes a hectare

Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.

Varieties grown here1

  • Robusta

  • Dwarf Cavendish

  • Grand Naine

  • Rasthali

  • Poovan

  • Nendran

    Dessert and cooking

  • Red Banana

  • Karpooravalli

  • Neypoovan

  • Monthan

    Cooking banana

  • Virupakshi

    Hill banana

  • Sirumalai

    Hill banana

Good neighbours1,8,10

Keep it away from

Pests and diseases1,13,8

Organic and cultural controls only.

  • Pest

    Stem weevil

    Signs

    Grubs bore inside the stem.

    What to do

    • Remove dry leaves and keep the field clean
    • Prune suckers every month
    • Uproot, chop and burn attacked plants, and keep them out of manure pits

  • Pest

    Nematodes

    Signs

    Roots damaged, plants weak, bunches small.

    What to do

    • Sow sunn hemp 45 days after planting and dig it in about a month later
    • Press mud at 15 t per hectare and neem cake at 1.5 t per hectare, one month after planting

  • Pest

    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

  • Disease

    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

    • Remove and burn affected leaves

  • Disease

    Fusarium wilt (Panama 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

    • Remove infected plants
    • Apply lime in the pits
    • Pseudomonas fluorescens at planting

    Prevention

    • Flood-fallow infected fields and grow one season of paddy
    • Poovan and Robusta resist it; Rasthali, Monthan and Karpooravalli are susceptible

  • Disease

    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

    • Destroy affected plants

    Prevention

    • Use suckers from healthy, virus-free clumps and pare the corms before planting

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 pickingNo published guide covers this for the South interior, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

After cutting the bunch, leave the old stem standing for a few weeks to feed the sucker kept for the next crop, then chop it and use it as mulch. After two or three ratoon crops, or when wilt or bunchy top appears, dig out the clumps and grow another crop before replanting.

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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