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Banana plantations, as well as growing the fruit, may also package, process, and ship their product directly from the plantation to worldwide markets.Depending on the scope of the operation, a plantation's size may vary from a small family farm operation to a corporate facility encompassing large tracts of land, multiple physical plants, and many employees.
The variety was once the dominant export banana to Europe and North America, grown in Central America but, in the 1950s, Panama disease, a wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, wiped out vast tracts of Gros Michel plantations in Central America, though it is still grown on non-infected land throughout the region.
Banana plants are among the largest extant herbaceous plants, some reaching up to 9 m (30 ft) in height or 18 m (59 ft) in the case of Musa ingens.The large herb is composed of a modified underground stem (), a false trunk or pseudostem formed by the basal parts of tightly rolled leaves, a network of roots, and a large flower spike.
The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. [2] All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure called a corm. [3] Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy with a treelike appearance, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a pseudostem composed of multiple leaf-stalks ().
Musa basjoo is a herbaceous perennial with trunk-like pseudostems [a] growing to around 2–2.5 m (6.6–8.2 ft), with a crown of mid-green leaves growing up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long and 70 cm (28 in) wide when mature. The species produces male and female flowers on the same inflorescence which may extend for over 1 m (3.3 ft).
A banana bunch is covered by a polythene bag to prevent disease. The plant is propagated by roots or from suckers and takes one year to reach maturity. Each planting area consists of one bearing plant. When the crop is bearing, bunch sleeving is carried out. Each bunch is covered with a polythene bag and treated with insecticide.
The same term is also used to describe the plants on which the bananas grow. They include commercially important cultivars like ' Dwarf Cavendish ' (1888) and ' Grand Nain ' (the " Chiquita banana"). Since the 1950s, these cultivars have been the most internationally traded bananas. [ 1 ]
Choosing to plant monoculture or polyculture (planting in the garden with other fruit trees) is fine. [13] If planting polyculture, gardeners need to keep the distance wide enough for banana trees as well as enough light for 6–7 hours/day for the bananas to grow. If planting monoculture, gardeners should choose good soil and water fully.