Gabe15

They can take a while to get going (if warm, up to 2 months), which can make it seem like they are struggling, but they are usually just establishing a root system. The size of the corm matters, if they have a decent sized, solid, intact corm (baseball-softball sized at least) and a foot or two tall at least of pseudostem, they are fine. I usually dig a hole about 1-2ft deep and about 2ft wide, throw in a few shovel-fulls of compost and mix it with the soil and plant the sucker at least 1ft deep. Planting deep is good, it can help the plant have better access to water and keep the roots cooler initially, even up to 3ft deep (if you have a sucker tall enough) is fine and can result in quicker fruiting, but of course the deeper they are, the more difficult they are to manage the mats for the first few years until the mat rises to the surface. For northern growers, it would be a good experiment to try planting a large sucker extra deep in the spring to hasten fruiting.

I soak the soil the first time just to get everything settled and then leave it to the rain until I have irrigation hooked up, but if it's already in a spot with irrigation it doesn't matter, they always do fine anyways. I also put on a thick layer of mulch (which is always a good idea), and pile on compost from time to time throughout its life.

Bananas are really very tough plants, and if you start with good planting material and give them sun, warmth and water, they are hard to mess up. They are fine to go in full sun from day one, if they already have leaves and the plant wasn't growing in full sun previously, they will burn and look ratty, but the new leaves will be fine.

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