Gabe15

Welcome Tim.

If there are no shoots coming from the center, it indicates that the corms there are now dead, which is common in older mats. Banana's natural tendency is to move around over time, and an individual shoot or corm section isn't very longed lived (relative to truly long lived plants like trees).

I don't think there is a straight forward way to get more shoots in the center of the mat if there are none growing now. This normally does not happen in such an even pattern in the tropics, I suspect the cycle of dying back each year is contributing to this phenomenon, your specific conditions must be favoring younger corms, and older corms are dying out without producing suckers.

You could try to transplant suckers from the perimeter into the center of the mat, I've never had any reason to due this nor have I known anyone to do it, but you can try. It would technically solve your issue of not having shoots in the center of the mat, but it isn't really going to achieve the true goal which is to have a well filled mat.

The standard procedure with bananas would be to separate out some suckers and replant them and start over.

If you do this, there may be ways to prevent it from happening as severely in the future, but it would be really helpful to know what type of banana you are growing and where you are located. A future solution could be as simple as mulching differently (or at all if you are not currently mulching for winter protection) to better protect older corms as the mat grows.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.