New Plants

• When wild species bananas were grown on farms centuries ago, bananas were propagated by seeds. Plant the banana fruit and a new plant sprouts during the warm and moisture of the summer rainy season. Once a banana plant is growing, it multiples by producing more underground rhizomes, which are modified growth stems. One plant quickly becomes a clustered mass of many rhizomes that sprout multiple leafy stems that then produce fruits. Today, the easiest and most reliable way to get a new banana plant is to dig up a rhizome and transplant it.
  
  

Development

• Bananas need lots of sunlight, soil nutrients and moisture to prosper. Excessive drought and frost kills back leaves and stems to the ground and, if the underground rhizomes remain alive, sprout new stems once conducive conditions return. A moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter hastens both the growth of leaves and production of more roots. Large, paddlelike leaves photosynthesize sunlight to fuel growth. When humidity is high and temperatures warm, a banana stalk produces one long, pendent flower stalk. Numerous rows of upward-facing ovaries, or banana fruits, elongate as the leaves make carbohydrates and store them in the fruits.
  
  

Stalk Rejuvenation

• Once a banana stalk blooms, it is destined to die. The cluster of bananas that grows from the stalk eventually gets so large and heavy that it pulls down the deteriorating stalk. If any viable seeds existed in the bananas, they would come in contact with the soil and germinate. On banana plantations or in the home garden, the banana clusters are cut off for eating and the leafy banana stalk that bore the bananas is chopped down to the ground. It is replaced in a couple months by a new leafy sprout or sucker that arises from the newest rhizome in the plant cluster. A banana plant exists with numerous rhizomes and stalks at any one time.
  
  

Death

• It's possible for a banana plant to live in perpetuity as long as environmental conditions remain favorable and no insects, pests or diseases weaken the plant. Overly wet soils and cool temperatures exacerbate fungal rot of the banana roots and lead to plant death. Moreover, prolonged dryness or a nutrient-poor soil deteriorates the plant by slowly killing off rhizomes so that no more leafy stalks grow. Excessive cold also kills bananas. Many bananas survive frosts and freezes and remain dormant and alive in their rhizomes. Only if the soil freezes and the roots freeze through all tissues will the banana die and not sprout again in spring.