Gabe15

There's a lot I could comment on here, but I just want to point out one important thing that stands out to me.

Tissue cultured plants do have the potential to fruit quicker and yield more than conventional field-dug suckers, but it is not inherent to them being tissue cultured plants.

The reason they can fruit quicker is because they are already rooted upon planting in the field, and so begin foliar growth immediately, whereas a recently separated sucker will have a significant latent period of root establishment required before foliar growth resumes which can be (in my experience) anywhere from 1 to 3 months depending on a variety of factors. You can separate a sucker and pot and put it in the nursery for awhile and let it grow roots and begin foliar growth again, and then when you plant it in the field from that date the effect is the same as if it were a tissue cultured plant.

Additionally for suckers, being separated from established mats in the field, also have a much higher chance of harboring pests and diseases (particularly nematodes) which can put strain onto the newly establishing plants if present, thus potentially delaying fruiting reducing yield. Tissue cultured plants are generally screened for viruses, and then grown in sterile conditions and kept in a (hopefully) clean nursery situation, and so the plants start off clean. Again like with the rooting situation detailed above, if you have a completely clean (and rooted) sucker, it will behave the same in the field as a tissue cultured plant of similar physiological maturity.

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