Glen

I live in a hot summer climate with heavy clay and clay loam soils. The land is also very flat, so good drainage is not really an option. I do not amend the planting hole in any way, as that can cause many problems on these heavy soils.

I have found that bananas can take almost any amount of flooding in this area, once they have roots established in the native soil. In fact, they thrive under these very wet conditions.

The only bananas that I have lost here were shipped corms that I tried to plant directly in the ground. I received three corms. I knew where I wanted to plant them, the weather was warm, and no floods were forecast. As soon as I planted them, it started raining. The corms were submerged under standing water for days at a time, repeatedly over the course of several weeks. Every time it dried out a little, leaves would start to grow. Then it would rain again. After the corms were submerged for a couple days, the new growth would rot away. When it dried, leaves would try to grow again. After a number of cycles like this, I noticed that only one of the plants was not losing vigor with each cycle. I dug the two weaker corms, but there was not enough healthy corm left to save. The stronger corm was left in the ground, and it eventually grew into a nice plant.

Based on this experience, I will start newly shipped corms in pots, until they get some reasonable top and root growth. All potted plants that I have planted in the ground have done fine, regardless of the amount of rainfall.

I have not had any trouble with planting sword suckers from my own plants directly in the ground. They have a little root material left, and they do not experience the same pause in growth that makes shipped corms vulnerable to rot.