Here is some of the information I discovered while researching how to go about growing bananas in your backyard for Brisbane and Queensland.
Bananas require full sunlight for most of the day. They do best in a sheltered area where the roots will not become flooded. The best time to plant them is from September to mid-December.
Bananas require generous amounts of plant nutrients to grow and fruit. (800 grams of lime, 240 gram of urea, 30 grams of super).
Banana Laws in Queensland
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries advise you do not need a permit to grow a banana plant in the home garden.
However, you are required to source the banana plant from a Queensland Banana Approved Nursery (QBAN). You are unable to accept a plant from a neighbour, family member etc or purchase a plant from Gumtree/Facebook Marketplace websites. This is to ensure the banana plant you purchase is free from diseases such as Panama disease etc.
You may wish to know the banana plants listed for sale at Bunnings nurseries meet these standards. This is confirmed on the plant labels.
Permitted Bananas in Queensland
The only permitted varieties of bananas are:
- Blue Java – Silvery wax bloom, white flesh, dessert and cooking
- Bluggoe (plantain or cooking banana) – angular fruit
- Kluai Namwa Khom (Dwarf Ducasse) – fragrant sweet flavour, dessert and cooking, very vigorous. Referred to as sugar banana.
- Goldfinger – tangy tasting, doesn’t turn brown when cut
- Ladyfinger – drought hardy, long shelf life, dessert type, sweet creamy flesh
- Pissang Ceylan -pinkish midribs on leaves, agreeably sweet acid
Harvesting Bananas Video by Seed Savers Australia
Further Information
Agrilink has developed a Tropical banana information kit as a series of PDFs. The kit provides information on all aspects of growing tropical bananas in Queensland.
Jerry Coleby-Williams has written a great Fact Sheet: Growing Bananas for the ABC Gardening website.
