Appropriate Planting Time and Clump Management Practice for Banana Cultivation

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at IAAS, Rampur, Chitwan to investigate the effect of planting time and plant number/clump on growth, phonological behaviour, crop duration and quality of the banana fruits. Uniform suckers about 40-45 cm height and around 6-8 leaf stage of "Jhapali Malbhog (Cavendish group)" were planted on the 1st week of November, January, March, May, July and September. Planting time significantly influenced growth, phonological behaviour, crop duration and quality of fruits. Growth of the plant as well as maturity of the fruit was very fast during summer month. March planted suckers produced crop yield at the shortest duration within a year. Late planted suckers faced the problem of winter injury and required longer duration. Maturity of the fruit was greatly varied with the shooting period. It ranged between 62.7 days in June shooted bunch to 168.5 days in November shooted ones. Besides, good quality fruits and higher yield were obtained in the plants, which were shooted during summer months. The plants, which were shooted during November to March, the quality of the fruits was very poor and unmarketable. To escape from winter injury, it is suggested to plant suckers either in March or June – August. In a separate experiment one, two, three and four plants were planted in a clump by maintaining 3 m distance. The yield was linearly increased with increasing plant number. However, beyond 3 plants/clump there was decrease in the size of fingers. The average bunch yield in three plant system was 28.2 t/ha as compared to 10.08 t/ha in single plant system. Number of plants did not significantly influenced flowering and maturity period. With the ample supply of nutrients, planting 3 uniform plants per clump is suggested.

J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci. 23:21-27