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banana plant nutrients from stalk return to root mat

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rtdrury:
After harvesting the fruit, how much nutrients return from the dying banana stalk back to the root mat to benefit the next generation?  Has anyone done a comparison where one grove gets all its stalks cut and another where the stalks are left uncut?  If enough nutrients return to be stored in the root mat, this can save us some labor, and perhaps less exposure of roots to disease, and perhaps less evaporative loss of nutrients too?  Does it all add up to a net benefit to leave stalks uncut?

pineislander:
I split the difference by topping high, about 3 feet, and laying the cut parts down around the mat for mulch. I place the leaves down first and cover with pieces of pseudostem to keep them in place. Whatever is stored there returns via decomposition and builds soil, what may be in the trunk might return to the mat. Lastly, older leaves generally have some level of disease and putting them to ground should reduce the innoculum that would be airborne.

In my orchard I put a banana or papaya between almost every fruit tree when planted. As the mat grows I have seen the root mass and biomass produced has been building soil and the partial shade is a blessing to keep orchard temps lower. Bananas gather quite a bit of water on foggy/humid nights you will find a 1/2 cup every morning in each leaf axil. Yes there is some competition but the long term and overall benefits seem worthwhile.

rtdrury:
Sounds like a good balancing act to leave 3 feet of stalk.  Leaving everything on the stalk means slow decomposition, giving opportunity to pathogens.  Fast decomposition by chopping it up allows proliferation of aerobic bacteria, crowding out pathogens, also traps nitrogen/water that might have evaporated.  Simple A-B test remains potentially informative, comparing root mat size after several seasons for two cases: no cutting of fruited stalks versus cutting them up.  If the root mat absorbs most nutrients/water from uncut stalk, we save labor as a bonus.

As an aside, our Gran Nain yard bananas taste better than industrial bananas.  We think because we mulched with lots of tree leaves/branches, etc.  People around here are experimenting with big mulch piles (for everything, not just bananas), not even bothering with compost anymore.  I think this ensures nice ecosystem under there with abundance of all nutrients except possibly nitrogen.  And like you, the companion plantings and ground covers never seem to compromise the fruit trees.

pineislander:
I have been collecting yard waste in nearby neighborhoods. Homeowners begin putting prunings, palm fronds, etc by the roadside on weekends and the county waste contractor picks up on Wednesday. The stuff is rough even though the pickup people have specs for what they will take. I usually pass on huge piles and pick up stuff bundled with string, in trash bags, or easy palm fronds. Sometimes I get 4-8 pickup truckloads in a week. It doesn't look 'neat' like chipped mulch, but I hope it will last and cover soil. I realy have found that a banana mat, after the suckers proliferate generates a lot of organic matter. 

venturabananas:
My recollection is that there have been properly replicated, controlled studies on this question, and that leaving 4-5' of "trunk" (pseudostem) performed measurably better than removing the shoot that fruited near ground level.

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