cracking the banana code

it is perhaps the most wholesome tree (rivalled by the coconut) in any farm.
and i would rank it among the top things one should do in their farm - cracking the banana code.

some basic banana tree facts...
1. life of 12 to 24 months (depending on the variety). fruits around the 8th-9th month (12 month tree).
2. one of the few trees whose leaves do not fall onto the earth on withering. they fold down as a protective covering, safeguarding the stem from the heat.
3. produces a new leaf every 10 days.
4. is a water guzzler, but amazingly lets all the water back into the soil on completion of the fruiting.
5. the leaf is used as plate, the stem (innermost part) is consumable (super tasty), the flower is consumable (once the fruit formation stops). and the dried stem layers can be ripped into long threads and woven into good strong thread.
6. they propagate asexually by suckers (a shoot that grows from the lower stem/root). each plant gives out approx 5 suckers in its life span.
7. india leads world banana production by a significant margin.

more info here.

'cracking the banana code' in a farmstead means to reach a stage when bananas becomes perennially available.
so if we are growing the 12 month variety, you would need a 'banana cluster' to be harvested every 15 days or so. so a minimum of 24 trees is required.

in the farms of deepak suchde and bhaskar save, there were tons of bananas.

so imagine our delight when we saw this:

we are 3 months from banana-guzzling time...

in a very informative manner, the very last leaf prior to the fruiting is a dwarf leaf.
once you notice that, you know that the flower is on its way. simple effective communication


yes. we are on the way to cracking the code.