Banana (Chakkarakeli)

About Banana (Chakkarakeli)

Banana (Musa sp.) is India's second most important fruit crop after mango, valued for year-round availability and nutritive value. This Chakkarakeli variety is considered one of the tastiest and costliest bananas in the Indian market — excellent in sweetness, though with a shorter shelf life, and popularly used for fresh eating and fruit juice.

Growing Conditions

• Sunlight: Minimum 4 hours of direct bright sunlight; avoid fully shady spots.
• Soil: Regular garden soil enriched with organic matter.
• Climate: Tropical and subtropical regions, 15°C-35°C with 75-85% relative humidity.

Planting & Spacing

Can be grown in a large container, but does better planted directly in the ground where it can reach up to about 5 metres. It is a perennial that produces suckers from the rhizome, which take over as fruit-bearing stems.

Care

• Watering: Check the top 2 inches of soil for dryness before watering; water more frequently on hot, windy days.
• Fertilizer: Organic fertilizer roughly once every 10 months.
• Pruning: Keep only 1-2 main stems and remove extra suckers every 5-6 weeks so the main plant gains strength; cover developing bunches to protect from cold, sun scorch, and pests, and remove the male bud after the female flowering phase.

Fruiting & Harvest

Flowering occurs roughly every 8-10 months (sometimes 12-13 months), and this variety starts fruiting about 12-13 months after planting. Fruit is large and angular even when ripe, with sweet, starchy, white-to-yellowish pulp.

Note: This listing ships a young nursery plant, not a fruiting tree. Time to first fruit and yield vary by climate, care, and region - we don't promise a fixed timeline.