• The season of planting of banana varies between the various states. In most parts the colder seasons of the year are unsuitable for planting.
• In West Coast, planting is done from September to November, when irrigation facilities are available. Planting is done all the year round in order to secure better prices during the off season.
• In other areas planting is done during South west monsoon in May-June, and continues thereafter till November. Bontha and Mauritius and for Poovan the best time is November to January because it has a longer duration.
• Planting in cold season is a problem and great care is to be given for irrigating the crop in summer and also it exposes the plants to high winds or cyclone damage during bunch season.
• In Kerala, where Nendrans are cultivated as pure crop planting is done in September-October. On the Lower Palneys, including Sirumalai April planting is preferred. February-March is the best planting season in wet lands along the Cauvery bank as in Trichy. But in the perennial plantations in Tanjore, planting is done from January to June.
• October-November is considered to be the best time. They suggested that the rapid progress of plant growth during the four months of the monsoon is particularly helpful in plants in building up their growth and establishing themselves in advance of the setting of cold weather in November, when growth is retarted.
• The best time for planting in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Orissa is by the end of the June and in West Bengal, Bihar and Assam planting could be done at any time during the South West monsoon, when the rains are not too heavy.
• The planting should not be taken up during very cold and very hot months. Similarly, that planting season should be so adjusted that during the period of high winds, banana should not be in flower or near flowering stage. The period of planting should be so adjusted that active growth phase of the plants can continue unhampered during flower bud initiation stage.
• In view of the divergence of climatic and soil conditions in our country, bananas are grown all through the year, while the peak seasons vary in different parts of the country. Different planting seasons adopted in different states are given below.

Variety and Planting seasons in different States in India

States	Variety	Season of planting
Maharashtra	Robusta	August-December
Tamil Nadu	Poovan Rasthali Hill bananas	April-December
Kerala	Rasthali Nendran	November-January May-September
West Bengal		August-December March-April
Bihar		July-October
Andhra Pradesh		December-April ( East Godavari) August-September (West Godavari)
Gujarat		August-January
Assam		May-September
Karnataka		April-June September-March
Tripura		August & September

• Bananas planted in March/April made better growth and gave higher yields than those planted upto December. Flowering occurred in less than 300 days after planting in March/April.
• Growth and flower bud differentiation and fruit development were adversely affected, when the average temperature was below 75⁰ F.
• Sprouting of rhizomes was inhibited when the monthly average maximum temperature went above 98⁰ F. Six months old rhizomes were better planting material than two month old rhizomes.

• The nature of banana plant has made it imperative that reproduction be accomplished by vegetative means, since most commercially grown bananas are vegetatively parthenocarpic and effectively seed sterile.
  
• There are certain problems in propagation of banana plant.
  
• Planting materials (Sucker) are more bulkier and difficult for transport

Proper identification of clones in younger stages may not be possible Rapid multiplication methods are required to produce more plants from an achieved hybrid Disease free and disease resistance seed materials have to be produced. Besides the above, there are factors like soil, climate, temperature, manuring, size age, type etc., which may adversely affect the propagation of the plants. Fruits from rhizomes planted in April took two weeks longer for development than those planted in May-June or July.

Planters throughout the world usually plant sturdy and healthy sword suckers. Suckers of 3 months old well developed, disease free corms are seperated from the mother plant and planted for starting a new plantation. Planters throughout the world usually plant sturdy and healthy sword suckers. Suckers of 3 months old well developed, disease free corms are seperated from the mother plant and planted for starting a new plantation.

• Sword suckers having strong base, gradually tappering to a slender point with one or two narrow sword like leaves at the tip are preferred for planting, since it grows faster and comes to bearing early compared to water suckers.
  
• Suckers from high yielding and healthy plant crop are selected. The suckers are cleared of old roots over the corm, and can be stored in a cool dry place under shade of a tree for a week.

• Plant population per unit area depends on cultivar, topography, soil fertility, various aspects of management and duration of plantation etc.
• In general, tall cultivators are given wider spacing than the dwarf ones. High density planting may be practiced in mono-crop culture, while wider spacing is advocated for ratoon crop.
• Tall cultivars 9 feet x 10 feet
• Dwarf cultivars 6 feet x 6 feet

Cultivar	Recommended spacing
Robusta	1.0 x 2.0 m
Jahaji of Assam	1.2 x 2.0 m
Nendran	1.2 x 1.5 m
Dwarf cavendish	1.5 x 1.5 m
Karpura chakrakeli	2.0 x 2.0 m
Pedda pacha arati	1.8 x 1.8 m
Vamanakeli	1.4 x 1.4
For intercropping	3 x 1.5 m

• A density of 4,500 plants/ha is practiced in Maharashtra and Gujarat
• The palnt to palnt distance is 1.2 m , row to row ddistance is 1.5 m and between row to row is 2.0 m . considering the per hactare yield , net returns and quality of fruit spacing of 1.5 X 1.5 m corresponding to a plant population of 4,444 /ha was found to be optimum.
• The maximum profit in Dwarf Cavendish banana when spaced at 2m x 2m or 2.5m x 2.5 m. Closer spacing also produced higher yield of fruits.
• From a trial with Robusta banana spaced at 2.4 m x 1.8 m and 2.4 m x 2.4m, the highest yield was obtained with a spacing 2.4 m x 1.8m. Though there was higher yield in high density planting, the growth was found to be slower and shooting was delayed.
• Finger tip disease was severe in close planting. In high density plantation nearly 30 percent of the plants could not be harvested in time.

• If any damage is noticed to the corm of the sucker at the time of seperation of the suckers from the mother plant, the damaged portion of the corm may be clearly sliced off.
• The top portion of the pseudostem of the suckers may be gven a slant cut leaving six to nine inches psuedostem over the corm.
• This will fecilitate easy draining of plant sap, rainn water, leading to successful establishment of the suckers.
• But in coastal Andhra Pradesh the top portion of the sucker is retained while planting and deheaded to 2/3 size in about 20 days when growth is visible to maintain uniform height of the plantation.
• All the old roots of the rhizome should also be trimmed. The suckers thus prepared should be dipped in 0.1% Ceresan at the rate of 1g in one litre solution for five minutes and then planted.
• In areas of endemic for banana stem weevil, they should also be treated with 0.1% metasystox solution
• Only flat lands or lightly slopy lands can be selected for planting of banana. When banana is grown on hill slopes, soil conservation methods like bench terracing or contour bunding based on the gradient have to be necessarly adopted.
• Banana suckers should not be planted either too deep or too shallow. The suckers must be planted in the centre of the pit in such a way that the corm and another two inches of the pseudostem over it should submerge in the soil.
• Press the soil arround the sucker to avoid air spaces, to give firm stand to the stem and for better sprouting of the suckers.
• Suckers must be grouped according to their size and then planted.

Gapfilling

• Generally the banana suckers strikes roots within 10-15 days after planting, even after 15 days if there are no roots to the planted suckers it means it has died.
• Inspite of all precautions taken, some suckers may fail to sprout. This may be due to defective planting or defective plant material or defective irrigation. So, one should go around after 15 days in banana gardens and search for the causalities.
• All such causalities should immediately be gap filled with fresh sword suckers. Maintaining optimum population for unit area always leads to higher yields.
• So all gaps in the banana plantation must be filled with fresh suckers with in 20 days. This will also ensure fair uniformity in the stand of the crop.

• Rapid multiplication of banana suckers has been engaging the attention of scientists since a very long time. There is a problem when a new clone is being generated for extended cultivation or when a large amount of planting material of a specific pathogen tolerant clone is to be distributed to the growers.
• The prevalence of disease problems and the need for generating clean planting stock in large quantities have stimulated recently a surge of interest in the production of banana clones raised though aseptic micropropagation techniques.
• Shoot tips isolated from the rhizomes were found suitable for platelet production in vitro. Shoot tips with several older sheathing leaf bases enclosing the axillary buds regenerated multiple pantalets.
• Individual shootlet when separated and subcultured, produced a new crop of multiple shoots.
• Each plant cell has the potential to generate into a single plant. This is called Totipotency and when this character is involved into rapid and mass multiplication of propagules at optimum levels is called Micropropagation.
• This is an alternate to slow vegetative plant propagation.
• In Tissue Culture when a group of undifferentiated and meristamatically active cell called tissue is aseptically disserted out and put into a medium containing nutrient and incubated under conducive controlled conditions of light and temperature, it establish it self and starts growth.
• This is called Culture and the concept of 'tissue culture'.

Tissue culture involved following stages

Preparation of Stock plant

• The elite plants are selected and maintained under hygenic conditions (by spraying fungicide, bactericide and insecticide) and then the plant parts are taken for initiation.

Initiation (Stage-I)

• The innermost tissue of surface sterilised plant in dissected aseptically and put an to the medium of growth, Medium contains major and miner elements, same vitamins. Amino acids and growth promoting hormones, solidified by agar.

Multiplication (Stage II)

Shoot Organogenesis

When the tissue starts growth in stage I and forms a shoot it is transferred to another medium containing growth promoting hormones (enhancing cell division). The growing shoot multiplies and forms a dump of 3-4 shoots. Those are transferred to another medium for shooting and rooting after optimum growth.

Shooting and Rooting (Stage III)

Root Organogenesis

After multiplication, the single shoots are separated and placed into a shooting are rooting medium. At this stage the hormones may or may not be required. The shoot elongates and new root came up. Rooting takes place within 3-4 weeks.

Hardening (Stage IV)

Complete Plantlet

It involves acclimatisation of bottle grown plants to the natural environment in Green House. The plants are taken out of the bottle and the media adhering to the root system in washed fully.

After wards the plants are graded as per their size and then transferred singly to wells of portrays containing sterile medium (a mixture of peat moss and perlite).

• The whole portray with plants is maintained under high humidity conditions for a couple of weeks and there after the portrays are kept in open in the Green House under controlled temperature and humidity.
• This hardening taken 6 weeks and is called primary hardening - Regular sprays of plant protection chemicals are sprayed to achieve good hygenic condition of the plants.

Established Plantlet

Established Plantlet in field