Many decisions need to be made when planning a banana plantation. The Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) has some specific requirements such as planting density because of local climatic conditions.
Topics for consideration are:
- Propagation - tissue culture
- Nutrient management
- Irrigation and soil management
- Planting and layout
- Risk management
- Pests and diseases.
| Local practice | Method | Guidelines | Timing/frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultivation | Pre-wet season ripping | Diagonally | Once, pre-planting |
| — | Post-wet season ripping | Across planting lines | Once, pre-planting |
| — | Ploughing | — | — |
| Drainage | Roadside drains | Laser levelling to collect run-off from blocks | At road formation and block cultivation |
| Land levelling | Laser levelling | Slope 1:500 | After ploughing |
| Bed formation | Flat top beds | ~25cm high | Once only, after ploughing |
| Soil analysis | 20 plugs/ha, 0-15cm depth | — | Prior to planting, after cultivation |
| Pre-plant weed control | Ploughing | — | Once |
| — | Herbicide spray | Stomp® | As needed |
| Local practice | Method | Guidelines |
|---|---|---|
| Plant materials | Bits or tissue-cultured plantlets | Use mechanised bit planter |
| Layout | Plant density at planting | 1400-1500/ha |
| — | Row spacing | 2.5-3m, single rows |
| Local practice | Method | Guidelines | Timing/frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weed management | Ploughing | — | As required |
| — | Slashing | — | Inter-row areas |
| — | Spraying | With tractor or knapsack in inter-rows | Glyphosate, SpraySeed®, Surflan (pre-emergent) |
| Sucker management | De-suckering | Kerosene gun, spray side of sucker or cut tops and spray kerosene. (There is currently no chemical in WA registered for de-suckering.) | About 5-7 times per year |
| — | Sucker selection | 2 suckers per parent corm | — |
| — | Orientation of follower suckers | — | Opposite sides of parent stem |
| — | Timing of follower sucker selection |
Look for uniform size suckers | Feb/Mar, Oct/Nov |
| Bunch management | Bunch covers on emerged bunches | At finger curl stage, one cover per bunch with colour-coded tags to record date and addess maturity. Manually placed. | Weekly inspections |
| — | Bunch trimming | Leave 7-9 hands per bunch, break off bell and lower hands. | — |
| — | Insect blocks in bunch cover for sugarcane bud moth and russet mite | One block of chlorpyifos. | — |
| Trash management | Banana trash | Windrowed in sprinkler line or placed in inter-row, cut to aid decomposition | At de-leafing, de-suckering, bunch trimming |
| Local practice | Method | Guidelines | Timing/frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maturity assessment | Based on bunch covers, records and fruit diameter | — | — |
| Harvest team | — | 1 cutter, 2 carriers | — |
| Transport | To shed | Bunches upright on cushioned trailer | — |
| De-handing and packing | Trough and wheel system | Forced water trough | Bunches washed, de-handed and placed into trough. De-sapping occurs in trough. |
| — | — | Packing wheel to grade bananas for packing | Sorters sort, grade and transfer fruit to packing wheel. |
| — | Grading and quality control | Cartons packed to 13.5-13.75kg. Three grades: extra large, large and medium | — |
More information can be found in the Agriculture Western Australia Horticulture Research Report 1994-1998, Frank Wise Institute, Kununurra, and Banana offtypes, An illustrated guide, QDPI. Information sourced from Harmill S and Smith M. Use tissue culture to introduce banana plants to your farm without pest and disease. DPI, Nambour. Bananatopics, vol 30.