🍌 Banana
Fruit Trees · growing reference
| To first harvest | ~1 year – ~1.5 years, by type |
|---|---|
| Spacing | 120″ in the row × 144″ between rows |
| Planted as | pup |
| Water | ~1.5–3 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Apr 29, once frost danger has passed. It's container-grown, so any mild spell after that will do.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | May 29 |
| Zone 4 | May 21 |
| Zone 5 | May 10 |
| Zone 6 | Apr 29 |
| Zone 7 | Apr 15 |
| Zone 8 | Mar 29 |
| Zone 9 | Mar 6 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Banana Types
- Dessert · ~1 year · 30–60 lbs/plant — Cavendish, Dwarf Namwah, Gros Michel — eaten fresh and ripe.
- Plantain · ~1.5 years · 30–60 lbs/plant — Cooking bananas — starchy, fried or boiled green, never eaten raw.
- Ice Cream · ~1.5 years · 25–50 lbs/plant — Blue Java — the vanilla-custard one, and among the cold-hardiest of the fruiting kinds.
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