Banana

Banana plants thrive naturally on deep, loose, well-drained soils in humid tropical climates, and they are grown successfully under irrigation in such semiarid regions as southern Jamaica. Suckers and divisions of the rhizome are used as planting material; the first crop ripens within 10 to 15 months, and thereafter fruit production is more or less continuous. Frequent pruning is required to remove surplus growth and prevent crowding in a banana plantation.