A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Banana tree production problem

New member with a question on banana tree production. I have a banana tree with a stem of bananas on it. However bananas grew very nicely about half way down the stem and then the very small ones stopped growing. The upper ones are doing fine. Do you know why this happens and how can I get them to produce more completely down the stem?

uh, where do you live??

also, if you are going heavy on the fertilizer then that might be one of the problems of why its doing that, also, make sure its in full sunlight and that there is fresh, circulating air where the bannana tree is. also it might be of a humidity problem but i doubt that

Maybe you should clip off the ones at the bottom so more energy is directed to producing bigger better ones at the top? I know my mom does this to her tomatos to get bigger ones

banana production will depend on the variety. there are some that do not produce all the way down the stem. some, like cavendish do produce all the way down, but the lower ones are smaller.

Bananas are hungry and thirsty. If they "run out" of nutrient when flowering, especially potassium, they will stop setting fruit. They like a deep rich soil with lots of humus. Good drainage and a regular water supply. Fertilise with blood and bone meal and add some sulphate of potash prior to flowering.
Once they finish setting fruit, cut the flower off the bunch to direct more energy to the fruit.