Producing healthy plantain and banana suckers (summary)
To grow plantains and bananas you need suckers. A sucker is a small banana plant that grows at the base of the main stem also called the mother plant.
Most farmers take suckers directly from their fields from old mother plants. Instead of planting suckers directly, you can grow many new healthy plants from each bulb. This technique of producing suckers from bulbs is done outside the field and is simple to do it yourself.
Suckers From Bulb
Start by selecting a mother plant. Take a small sucker that is up to 1m high and that has narrow spear shaped leaves or the central leaf shaped like a cigar. Avoid suckers that are too large when you want to propagate.
Young suckers with about two healthy leaves give a lot of good suckers and give good results. These suckers when planted give good big foods which can fetch a lot of money. This technique helps eliminate he problems of contaminated poor quality suckers.
