Last year, I tagged along on a tour of a banana plantation in Puerto Armuelles, Panama.
In this video, a gentleman who used to be in charge of growing bananas for Chiquita explains how a banana grows.
Basically, it takes 5 and half months before the banana plant “gives birth” to the banana fruit.
Then it takes about 2 weeks for the bananas to fully grow.
To help them ripen and protect the bananas from insects the bananas are covered in a plastic bag, while still on the tree, for about 90 days.
Chiquita used chemicals and fertilizers on their banana plants. However, they are not necessary.
We have many banana plants in our yard and we never use chemicals or fertilizer.
In the video, you can see two ways bananas grow.
- From the seed
- From “el hijos” or new banana trees that spontaneously start growing next to the banana tree once it starts to fruit.
