How to influence banana bunch length and number of hands per bunch

Nitrogen and potassium influences banana bunch length and number of hands per bunch.

Crop nutrition

Applied nitrogen is used for dry matter production and yield, including bunch weight, bunch length and the number of hands per bunch. Plantains can be as responsive as bananas to nitrogen.

Because of the shallow-rooted nature of the plant and the significant losses that can occur due to leaching and volatilization, regular N-applications are important. In addition, bananas are also unable to store nitrogen within the pseudostem. Thus, any lack of nitrogen results in slow growth, with the plant 'shutting-down'.

Too much nitrogen however, will 'extend' the bunch, resulting in undesirably large gaps between the hands. In addition, bunches are smaller, do not fill properly, have a reduced green life at harvest and are more prone to dropping from the plant.

It is important to maintain a good balance between potassium and nitrogen. If not, the banana bunch emergence can be delayed, creating fragile fruit pedicles, with ripe fruit falling of the bunch. Bunches also have more widely spread hands, which are more easily damaged during transport.

Critical leaf potassium:nitrogen ratio for optimum yields varies between 1:1 and 1.6:1, depending on the method used for leaf analysis and the portion of the leaf sampled.