How to Grow Musa Cavendish

Break up the ground 8 to 12 inches deep in a site in full sun with a shovel. Select a location that collects heat. A patch of earth by an asphalt driveway or next to a wall is ideal. The banana fruit ripens when the temperature range holds between 84 and 86 F.

Incorporate three inches of compost into the tilled ground. The organic matter improves soil structure and promotes fast drainage, which banana plants require. Rake the surface to smooth it out for planting.

Plant the banana tree away from the wind’s route. Banana leaves shred easily and need the protection. A hedge or a building are examples of barriers against the wind.

Irrigate the banana plant once a week, applying one inch of water in a single session. That causes the water to go deep, stimulating the roots to grow long to reach the moisture.

Hoe an area that extends six feet from the base of the Cavendish. Weed as often as necessary to prevent the invasive plants from maturing. Make a six-inch-deep mulch ring around the Musa Cavendish, covering the same six-foot-wide area you are keeping weed-free. Use wood chips or bark, for example.

Broadcast 1/2 pound of an 8-10-8 fertilizer around the base of a newly planted Musa Cavendish monthly. Cover an eight-foot-wide circle with the product and irrigate the area to release the feed into the ground. Do not let the fertilizer touch the stem to prevent injury. Increase the amount of fertilizer to two pounds the following years after the plant is established.

Trim off all shoots that sprout regularly, except for one to bear the fruit. When that stem is six to eight months old, select a second one to retain. Banana’s fruiting stems are only productive once. You need to nourish a second stalk to take the place of the one that dies after bearing.

Cut the bunches of ripe Cavendish bananas off the plant with a machete. As another option, chop the entire stalk off while the fruit are still green, but only two weeks from maturing. Hang the stems in the shade, where the fruit continue to develop and ripen.

Prune the stalk that bears bananas 30 inches from the surface if you did not cut it at harvest. Sever it completely from the main plant, chopping it back to the base, two to three weeks after the initial post-harvest trimming.