Musa x paradisiaca ‘Sapientum’ Bananas

Planting position: Full sun. Ideal for tropical regions with wind-protection. Spacing of 3m.
Requires regular watering, ensuring constant moist soil, but never saturate. Well-draining, compost-enriched loamy soil and generous layers of mulching. Cutting off dead/diseased leaves. Prune stems (after fruiting) down to ground level and let one sucker grow in its place. Cut other suckers back to just above ground level.
Propagate from suckers.
Fertilising programme after planting: Two months after planting apply 60g of 3:1:5 each month, for 5 months (well away from the stem). Spring applications - 30g of Magnesium sulphate and 4 applications of 30g 3:1:5 from the beginning of spring to autumn, every second month.
Harvesting is done when fruits are just yellow and fully rounded between ridges. The fruit should be handled tenderly and provided with shade immediately.


Pests, diseases and their cures: Banana slug - use bait at night; Leaf spot - monthly summer sprays of mancozeb or copper oxychloride.

This herbaceous plant has a pseudostem (trunk) with overlapping leaf stems and flowers of large reddish-purple bracts, followed by the fruit. These golden yellow skinned fruits are seedless with creamy yellow, sweet flesh.