Top tips for growing bananas

January 31, 2025

With their lush tropical foliage and bountiful fruit, banana plants are a fantastic addition to any garden in the right climate. It’s such a delight to harvest big bunches of fruit to share with friends and neighbours and use in everything from smoothies to dried banana snacks. Ready to try growing bananas yourself? Here’s everything you need to know to get started and enjoy your own backyard bounty.

About bananas plant structure

Let’s start by looking at the banana’s unique structure – it’s a fleshy, suckering plant with multiple pseudostems sprouting from an underground corm.
The pseudostems aren’t true stems; they’re made up of tightly packed, overlapping leaf bases that look just like a stem.
Once a pseudostem matures, it sends out a long flower stalk that holds impressive bunches of fruit – sometimes up to 12 hands, each with 12 fingers (bananas).
After fruiting, the pseudostem’s job is done, so it dies back. Be sure to remove it promptly to keep the clump healthy and thriving.

What Climate and site location do bananas love to grow in

Bananas love to grow in warm, humid, frost-free areas – tropical and subtropical gardens are perfect but you can also grow them in warm temperate areas.
Find a sunny spot with shelter from strong winds. If you’re in a cooler area, give your plants extra TLC by planting them in front of a north-facing wall where they can soak up winter warmth.
These hungry plants thrive in rich, fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of around 6.5. If you need to improve the drainage, mound the soil.
Grow bananas near other plants to increase humidity and keep them happy.

Planting

Plant your bananas in spring or summer and pop the stem in slightly deeper than it was in the pot—this helps it stay nice and stable.
If you’re planting more than one, give them room to grow by spacing plants 3–4 meters apart.
Keep your new plant happy with regular watering – just enough to keep the soil lightly moist.

Care

Once your bananas are settled in, give them a good deep drink during dry spells.
Feed them every 6–8 weeks from spring to autumn with a complete organic fertiliser, try ActivGrow Fertiliser. When you spot fruiting stems, add a potassium-rich fertiliser like sulphate of potash for a boost.
Maintain a 10cm layer of Sugar Cane Mulch around the plants to retain moisture and keep weeds at bay.

Manage suckers

To keep your clump happy and productive, remove excess suckers. Stick to three stems per clump: one fruiting, one maturing, and one developing.
Transplant narrow-leafed ‘sword suckers’ to other parts of your garden to grow new plants. Avoid transplanting broad-leafed suckers as they don’t produce as well.

Managing fruit

Some growers will remove the bell at the base of the fruit stem to help deter pests, but it is optional.
Protect developing bunches with banana bags to prevent damage from birds and flying foxes.
For those heavy bunches, don’t be afraid to prop up the stems for support

Harvesting

Bananas are ready to pick when they’re plump and well-rounded.
You can harvest while they’re still green. Either remove the whole bunch – be careful as they can be very heavy – or just pick individual hands to ripen indoors.

Sourcing the right banana plants

Always start with certified, disease-free tissue-cultured banana plants from your local garden centre. It’s super important because bananas can fall victim to a few nasty diseases. If not managed properly, these diseases could cause big problems for the banana industry – so let’s do our bit to keep those bananas safe and thriving!