Although bananas are well-known tropical fruits, what if someone were to ask how to plant a banana plant or what is the best fertilizer for banana tree? First, banana trees don’t actually exist as the plant grows much differently from a conventional tree. The healthy fruits you see also don’t go to grow more plants, as these come from suckers.
When given a lot of nutrients, bananas thrive and need plenty of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. To offer them all these tropical plants, there are many products you can buy, and also you’ll find many types of fertilizer for banana plant from home.
So, you can use chemical fertilizer or organic composted manure to maintain soil health. In our guide, you can learn more about all the options to find the best 8-10-8 fertilizer for the banana tree you are growing.
By the end, you’ll have more than enough options to feed your outdoor plants or dwarf indoor plants. It can even be used on cold hardy banana trees, although these growing banana trees won’t produce edible fruits. (Read Majesty Palm Vs Areca Palm)
What Are The Main Banana Tree Fertilizer Requirements
On your banana plants, you can apply either a liquid banana tree fertilizer or a granular banana tree fertilizer. All the micro and secondary nutrients your healthy plant requires to produce a healthy-sized bunch of bananas is present in well-balanced banana fertilizer.
Thus, fertilizers for mature banana plants increase productivity and guarantee sweet fruits for you to harvest. Because the seasons coincide with the plant’s growth stages, fertilizing your banana tree depends on the season.
Spring and Summer Fertilizing
This is the time to fertilize the plant regularly, once per month. Keep the soil moist but not soggy by thoroughly watering the fertilizer. Cut the fertilizer dosage in half for banana trees in containers or indoors.
Fall and Winter Fertilizing
The plant is currently in its dormant season, during which little to no growth occurs. Therefore, you can cease fertilizing the plant every two months or minimally fertilize it with a maintenance fertilizer.
Why Banana Plants Need Nitrogen?
The development of chlorophyll and the plant of numerous robust, healthy green leaves, which result in a good fruit harvest, depend on nitrogen for your banana plant’s growth.
You will receive large, numerous fruit if there is enough nitrogen, especially while the plant is young. Yellowing of the leaves, a rose-colored tinge on the petioles (leaf stems), stunted and poor plant growth, poor or no crop, and rapid leaf death are indications of nitrogen deficiency.
Why Quality Bananas Need Potassium
High potassium fertilizers are essential for the growth and health of outdoor or potted banana trees. Potassium aids in photosynthesis controls CO2 and water intake and helps your plant fend off infections and the effects of environmental stress from cooler weather.
Here’s how to spot a potassium deficiency:
- Small yellow leaves
- Banana bunches grow late
- Smaller yields
- Small or no bananas
What Other Nutrients Banana Trees Require
The best fertilizers for banana plants contain both macronutrients and micronutrients, as banana plants require both to survive and flourish. Banana plants also require micronutrients like boron, zinc, and iron and macronutrients like phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, and sulfur.
All the macro- and micronutrients your plant requires will be in balanced fertilizers for banana trees, guaranteeing that it develops swiftly, remains healthy, and yields a good crop of high-quality fruit. Therefore, banana plant fertilizer with a ratio of 8-10-8 is advised. (Read Why Are Grape Vine Leaves Turning Brown)
How To Fertilize A Banana Tree
An adult banana tree (9 months or older) requires 1.5 pounds of 8-10-8 fertilizer once a month.
Spread the banana tree fertilizer evenly in a circle around the base of the banana plant, avoiding the trunk, then slightly dig it into the soil and thoroughly water banana trees in these areas.
Dwarf Banana Plants
For dwarf banana trees or banana trees as container plants, you can use half the fertilizer amount as a monthly dose.
Fertilize As You Water
Applying a weaker dose of banana fertilizer each time, you water the plant is another way to feed your banana plants. You can accomplish this by combining some of the monthly fertilizer dosage with the water and applying it as you rinse your mature banana plant.
Repeat these steps each time you water your banana plant to keep the soil moist without letting it get saturated. For example, if the top inch of soil is dry, your banana plant needs watering.
Using a High Potassium and High Nitrogen Fertilizer
Applying a high potassium fertilizer and a high nitrogen fertilizer, as opposed to a balanced fertilizer, requires a different application. Every month during the growing season, add the high nitrogen feed to the soil and water it thoroughly.
The application of high nitrogen fertilizer should be reduced and replaced with high potassium fertilizer once the banana flowers. This kind of flower development helps in every stage. Check the soil’s acidity soil; if it drops below 6 pH, cease applying fertilizer. Alternately, as blooms form, fertilization should be suspended.
Banana Plant Pests
Banana weevils are among the worst things for your banana plants. Small as they are, these insects may do a lot of damage by boring into the banana plant and eating it from the inside out. Unfortunately, banana weevils can only be eliminated with a pesticide.
Choosing Banana Plants Best Fertilizer
One of the critical aspects of healthy banana tree growing is maintaining a consistent watering and feeding plan.
It is time-consuming, so knowing which are the best banana fertilizers available, how to use them, and how often helps to make the correct selection.
Granular Vs. Liquid Fertilizer
Use granular or liquid fertilizer on banana plants. Granular feeds must be measured according to the size of your banana plant or plants and scattered around the plant’s base.
However, fertilizer burn can damage your banana plant if you get granules too close to the stem.
Fertilizer Spikes
Banana trees and plants can be fed using fertilizer spikes. These can be among the best fertilizer for banana plants to save time and be easy to use. (Learn How To Protect New Grass From Frost)
They are mess-free, odorless, and don’t need measuring or mixing. In addition, they offer a slow-release feeding option that releases nutrients for 8 weeks. This feeding method is more expensive, and you may require multiple spikes for larger plants.
Fertilizing Banana Plants
Regular and ample feeding promotes strong, healthy growth, beautiful green leaves, and a bumper fruit crop. There are also differences in whether your banana plant is in the ground or a pot.
Fertilizing Indoor Banana Plants In Pots
Growing banana plants in pots or containers inside your home significantly adds drama and interest. It also means that you can enjoy these beautiful, grand plants even if you don’t live in a tropical climate.
Unless you have a lot of room, choosing a dwarf variety in a large pot is best to grow indoors. Young banana plants grown indoors need fertilizer once a month while they grow.
A balanced 12-12-12 fertilizer is perfect for this, and you don’t need to change the amount of nitrogen and potassium because it’s unlikely that a banana plant grown indoors will produce fruit.
Fertilizing Banana Trees Outside
You need to feed regularly as your banana trees are heavy feeders. Not only do they need to be planted in nutrient-rich soil, but they also need to be fed often from spring to fall, when they are actively growing.
One measure of fertilizer should be used regularly to feed new plants. Once your banana plant is fully grown, increase it to 1.5 measures. Banana plants grow fast and can be fully grown in as few as 15 months. (Read Can Chickens Eat Banana Peels)
Types of Fertilizers for Banana Tree
Bananas are heavy feeders; even though bananas are packed with potassium, you’ll find banana plants need potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. 8-10-8 fertilizer is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and helps stave off plant diseases.
A lack of nitrogen and potassium might stunt banana plant growth during the growing season. Banana plants can be fertilized using liquid or granular fertilizer.
High-quality banana tree fertilizer can help plants grow excellent banana fruit with higher yields. Zinc, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are crucial nutrients, but don’t neglect natural fertilizer for banana plants.
Zinc
When grown in zinc-deficient soils, the leaves are slender and tapering, and the fruit has a bunch top crown. Zinc deficiencies can cause leaves to turn yellow with green stripes.
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is the leading growth promoter, as it increases the growth of the fruit trees’ pseudostem and leaves. These nutrient impacts leaf production and leaf unfolding. Remember that healthier leaves equal higher yield quality.
Overfeeding your banana plant might produce less fruit or bunches with uneven fingers and affect fruit quality.
Phosphorus and Potassium
Phosphorus makes a banana plant’s rhizome hard and its roots strong. This nutrient is needed by the banana plant 3 to 9 months after planting. During the flowering and fruiting periods of the plant, phosphorus is lost and redistributed to the sucker.
When a banana tree lacks phosphorus, a color change can lead to marginal chlorosis and other complications. Potassium stimulates early shoots, reduces fruit ripening time in the growing season, and improves bunch grade.
A potassium deficit can shrink banana leaves. This often causes a hue change. Older leaves turn yellow, and this is apparent. The leaves would turn and wither, and lamina might split. This nutritional deficit can also cause misshapen, unmarketable fruits.
Natural Fertilizers For Banana Plants
You may have heard, are coffee grounds good for bananas? Banana plants can get all the nitrogen they need from used coffee ground leftovers.
They can be planted in the soil right away. Ground coffee has a pH of 7, making no difference to soil acidity or the overall soil pH.
Put them to use by mulching your banana tree’s base with used coffee grounds and watering it regularly. The banana tree can also be watered with water infused with coffee and sit out overnight. (Read Do Deer Eat Potatoes Plants)
Best Banana Tree Fertilizer
The Banana Fertilizer Fuel is available in a single size (2 lbs.), and it can assist you in creating fruitful surroundings for your banana plant, even if it is in a container.
For bananas grown in containers, mix a quarter or half teaspoon of this fertilizer with a gallon of water every one to two weeks. You’ll need a full teaspoon for the same duration for bananas grown in the ground during the growing season.
Down to Earth Organic Fruit Tree Fertilizer
The Down to Earth Organic Fruit Tree Fertilizer Mix contains:
- feather meal, fishbone meal,
- calcium carbonate,
- langbeinite, potassium sulfate, alfalfa meal, and kelp meal.
Much of the goodness here is similar to what you find in organic compost or if you shred banana peels and add these to the soil.
Banana Tree Fertilizer Propagation
The most common method to multiply banana trees is by division, though there are other ways. To accomplish this, you’ll need to use a spade to detach the little sprouts from the horizontal underground stem.
You would report banana plants at the end of the propagation process from smaller containers to larger ones at least 15 gallons. You might also repot them into the ground as an alternative. Make sure the pot has adequate drainage. Use high-notch potting quality with it.
Remember that when you grow banana plants in pots, would demand you water your banana plants regularly. On the downside, these potted banana plants are typically fruitless and considerably smaller than banana plants rooted in the ground.