How you can grow tissue culture bananas

Uganda as the world’s second largest producer of banana after India, and the leading consumer in the whole world. Each person consumes about 250 kilogrammes of bananas a year in Uganda.

But, whereas banana is a favourite food, the crop has been faced by many challenges ranging from diseases and pests. Banana bacterial wilt disease, which is known by everybody that grows or has ever grown bananas, is a case in point. The weevils are also well known.

For the case of diseases, they are mainly transported from one garden/farm to another through picking young suckers for planting into a new garden.

Whereas you may see the plant and think it is clean or has no disease, you will be introducing the disease to your new garden. It is against this background that tissue culture plantlets are becoming the favourite for farmers who intend to grow bananas commercially.
Here is how to plant them.

1. The seedlings are bought when they are ready to be planted, so you need to have the garden ready. After your field is prepared, dig the holes (1.5-2ft x 1.5-2ft x 1.5-2ft). The deep hole helps reduce formation of high mat and risk of the plants toppling (falling) in the advent of wind.

Rows should be straight and if on a hill side, planting should be along contours to minimise soil erosion. As you dig the hole, separate the soil removed as top soil (black) and subsoil (red).

2. After that, put well decomposed manure in each hole and add one hoe-full of the red soil and mix properly.
Do not return too much soil in the hole (so do not refill the hole). When all the holes and manure ready, you then get the plants.

If you cannot plant on the same day, keep them under shade for planting the next day, but make sure you water them that evening.

3. Planting should never be done in a field that already has bananas. This is to avoid pests and diseases. Planting should therefore be done in a clean field preferably a virgin one.

Planting involves splitting the polythene paper pot while holding the soil carefully.

Then, by hand or using a tool such as a panga, make a smaller hole in the manure/soil mixture and place the seedling. Then compact the soil to make the plant hold firm in the soil.

4. Water the plant with about half-a litre of water and if possible mulch around the plant with grass inside the big hole (mulching could be done before the plants are brought when you are preparing the holes after putting manure/soil mixture).

Depending on its size, the seedling will most likely remain deep in the hole but this is okay.

5. The remaining big hole will serve to collect any rain water and other soil nutrients brought by runoff to feed this plant and make it grow healthy.

If the season is dry, check on your plants regularly and water them, if necessary.

What is tissue culture?

Tissue culture is the science of multiplying clean disease-free planting materials of different crops to get many identical copies of the same variety without changing the taste and any other physical attribute of the plant.

In the lab
This work is done in agricultural laboratories and then the plants are raised in nursery beds where farmers can buy them ready for planting.
When you plant these tissue culture seedlings of bananas, you can be sure that you are starting off with clean seedlings rather than planting what you are not sure about.
Consult any farmer that has grown them before and you will discover that they grow very fast, faster than the suckers which are picked from an old garden, and they yield earlier (between eight and 12 months from planting depending on variety), and that they yield bigger bunches. Because they are small, tissue culture seedlings are more convenient to transport.

Same variety
They will grow uniformly, and you can plant as many acres of a garden of the same variety unlike the old method of picking suckers from a neighbours’ garden where you may not get enough of the same variety and in most cases, you can pick wrong varieties.

Using fertilisers

It is important to note that bananas require a lot of soil nutrients (they are heavy feeders) especially nitrogen and potash. So, fertilisers need to be added to realise maximum bunch weight, and maintain the plantation for a longer time.

Organic fertilisers
These are obtained in form of crop residues or manure or other forms of mulch. It is thus advisable that crop residues such as leaves, leaf sheaths and banana peelings should always be returned to the farm to compensate for the loss of nutrients taken out in form of harvest, and leaching of nutrients when it rains. Some farmers make organic fertilisers by collecting weeds, grasses, leafy materials and heaping them together. Cover them with soil such that they can decompose and form organic manure.
Others who keep livestock, collect animal manure. But do not apply this manure when it is still fresh as in the process of decomposing, it may “burn” the plants. Rather, heap it for about a month before you can use it in the plantation.

To apply organic manure, do not put it on the banana mat (this is a group of banana plants from the same mother) but rather in the gaps between the banana mats.
Inorganic fertilisers
Inorganic fertilisers are bought from agro-input suppliers or shops. Locate genuine suppliers and contact an agricultural extension officer for advice.
Bananas respond well to nitrogen and potash. Phosphorous is vital but required in smaller quantities. Early application of fertilisers is vital as it will affect the later stages of development.
If you do not have organic manure during planting, apply inorganic fertilisers at planting or at initiation of rations (emergence of daughter plants).
Some phosphate fertilisers should be applied at planting, and thereafter twice yearly, while nitrogen should be applied at quarterly intervals. Phosphorous and NPK should be applied once a month during the wet season. The fertiliser may be applied in the planting hole or at two to three feet in form of a ring around the banana mat. Broadcasting of the fertiliser may also be done in older plantations.
Requirements may vary from farm to farm and year to year. Thus, before applying inorganic fertilizers, seek advice from soil scientists, test the soil and determine which fertilisers to add and in what quantities.

Note
If you are planting the plantlets on, say, one acre, the recommended number of plants is 450 plants but for a higher plant population and for commercial purposes, you can plant 640 plants per acre.
If you plant 450 plants per acre, the distance between holes is three metres by three metres.
If you choose to plant 640 plants per acre, the plant spacing is two and a half (2.5) metres by two and a half (2.5) metres.