Banana plantation

[garrya]

Hi all

 

I was wondering if someone could give me some info on growing Cavendish banana.

My missus attended some workshop that was organized by the government and its aim was to help local business and here she met a guy who was a sort of wholesaler or broker(middleman) of agricultural products and he mentioned that he would be interested in buying Cavendish banana in any amount.

Obviously, we had done a rough calculation on the investement, costs and possible revenue. One rai land could accomodate roughly  7-800 plants (I may be wrong here) Considering 30 kg harvestable fruit per tree we could have 20,000 kg. This amount could be sold for about 350,000 - 400,000 baht. (again, I could be wrong here)  There would be costs involved, such as labour, fertilizer, irrigation, fuel, other chemicals etc. The banana is ready in 8 months, so every 8 months the plantation yields 100-150,000 baht profit. It doesn't seem to be a lucrative business seeing how much work is involved with a few hundred trees. Also, we don't know whether there are diseases or pests that could cause major problems. 

I guess we could just plant a 100 trees and see how it pans out? 

If anybody had any infos, ideas and suggestions, I would appreciate it.

 

[djayz]

My partner planted Cavendish bananas last year - 340 plants per rai is, apparently, the recommended ratio. Your estimate of 700-800 strikes me as being a lot (I could be wrong though). 

Ours aren't ready yet, but soon will be. 

[kickstart]

garrya .     About 18 months ago Thailand had a shortage of bananas, due to the drought 2 years ago, so the Thai's do what they are good at, every man and they dog are growing bananas, around here we have plantations of them anything from 3-4 rie  up to 20 rie  something  I have never seen before,  and that is in 15 years, and soon they will all be hitting the market and the price will drop for sure .

As for a middleman buying your crop, first off the price will be good, then the price will drop, he will know you have a crop to sell, bananas do not have a loge self-life, and the price will drop. 

What I have seen of banana plantations, as djayz said  7-800 plants per rie seems a lot, the few bananas we have grown in our garden, they take up a surprising amount of room. 

You say 100-150, 000 baht profit is not a  lucrative business try growing rice, maize or sugar cane,your 100-150,000 baht profit is a very good profit margin.

 They are no get rich schemes, especially in agriculture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

,

[grollies]

Standard planting pattern for bananas is 2 x 3m so @djayz is right, about 350 plants per rai.

 

I planted 300 bananas between our young rubber trees about 18 months ago but more to benefit the rubber and the land than for a commercial crop.

 

Buying suckers. Make sure the suckers you get are sword suckers, not water suckers. Sword suckers have thin, narrow leaves and water suckers have broad leaves. If you are offered suckers with the top of the stem sliced off, don't buy them as you won't be able to tell the sucker type.

 

Ground prep. Bananas like a good rich fertile soil. Ours are planted in mostly sandy soil so don't do so well. Mound up the surrounding ground in rows and add mulch, chicken manure before planting.

 

After you plant the suckers, chop off the top of the sucker at a 45deg angle. I know it sounds daft but new shoots will grow.

 

Disease. Fusarium wilt. Google it (there is loads of info on growing bananas online). Our bananas also suffer from it which then spread to my tomatoes and cucumber.

 

Cavendish bananas are suffering major disease worldwide. Have you thought about growing a different variety? We grow two types, Cavendish and the small Thai variety. The Thai variety are easier to sell locally.

 

You could start with 100, see how they get on and if you are happy with their progress and the return you get then expand.

 

You can transplant extra suckers to increase your crop, you only want two sword suckers per plant growing.

 

Good luck.

[tweedledee2]

  I suggest you do more research. I think your expectations for harvesting a full crop every 8 months will not happen. It takes about 9 months for the plant to mature before bearing fruit. Then after the plant flowers, it can take up to 2 months or more before the fruit will be ready. Each stalk will only bear fruit 1 time and then needs to be cut out to allow new growth. I have seen very few trees having multiple stalks bearing fruit at the same time, at least mine don't. I also believe your estimate on the number of plants in a Rai is twice what is recommended. A true Rai 40mX40m plot should at most have no more than 18 plants in a row squared. Another thing to consider is the logistics required between harvesting and delivery of the crop.

[garrya]

Thanks for all the input.

Ground preparations are taking place this week. We have access to a few rais of land, but only one rai is under my missus' name.

Considering the information given here, we will only do one rai, no more than 250 plants and we may do it in 2 batches, and put something else on the rest of the land.

Found these plants already, and they cost only a few baht per plant. The ground preparations will cost a few hundred baht. I don't understand why it is so cheap.

Harvesting and delivery is easy, as we have a pickup and the middlemen is not farther than 30 miles from us. 

Does this banana need extra watering or the almost daily rain is enough?

 

 

[grollies]

6 minutes ago, garrya said:

Thanks for all the input.

Ground preparations are taking place this week. We have access to a few rais of land, but only one rai is under my missus' name.

Considering the information given here, we will only do one rai, no more than 250 plants and we may do it in 2 batches, and put something else on the rest of the land.

Found these plants already, and they cost only a few baht per plant. The ground preparations will cost a few hundred baht. I don't understand why it is so cheap.

Harvesting and delivery is easy, as we have a pickup and the middlemen is not farther than 30 miles from us. 

Does this banana need extra watering or the almost daily rain is enough?

 

 

Dude, it will stop raining in November. You'll need drip irrigation.

[thoongfoned]

in the past 2 years the local amper as been paying/giving help for people to plant bannas, rice,grass or dig fish ponds ect think the wife got about 20,000 baht to do some project or other. they have been out twice to check if work has happened.... in the past 6 months they have been giving some more money out for the new must have crop/project ect....

we have bannas, no more than 200/300 "clumps" here and there, mainly around pools of water,  the kids like to eat them, sister in laws pigs  like em, the rest we give away to family or friends that visit... dont expect to get any cash back after the set up costs, maintance, vits ect have been taken back out. if you could may get 1,000 or 2,000 baht profit from that one rai i would say that you have done well...... 

 

[garrya]

8 hours ago, djayz said:

My partner planted Cavendish bananas last year - 340 plants per rai is, apparently, the recommended ratio. Your estimate of 700-800 strikes me as being a lot (I could be wrong though). 

Ours aren't ready yet, but soon will be. 

Thanks. I thought my numbers were wrong.

[garrya]

4 hours ago, grollies said:

Standard planting pattern for bananas is 2 x 3m so @djayz is right, about 350 plants per rai.

 

I planted 300 bananas between our young rubber trees about 18 months ago but more to benefit the rubber and the land than for a commercial crop.

 

Buying suckers. Make sure the suckers you get are sword suckers, not water suckers. Sword suckers have thin, narrow leaves and water suckers have broad leaves. If you are offered suckers with the top of the stem sliced off, don't buy them as you won't be able to tell the sucker type.

 

Ground prep. Bananas like a good rich fertile soil. Ours are planted in mostly sandy soil so don't do so well. Mound up the surrounding ground in rows and add mulch, chicken manure before planting.

 

After you plant the suckers, chop off the top of the sucker at a 45deg angle. I know it sounds daft but new shoots will grow.

 

Disease. Fusarium wilt. Google it (there is loads of info on growing bananas online). Our bananas also suffer from it which then spread to my tomatoes and cucumber.

 

Cavendish bananas are suffering major disease worldwide. Have you thought about growing a different variety? We grow two types, Cavendish and the small Thai variety. The Thai variety are easier to sell locally.

 

You could start with 100, see how they get on and if you are happy with their progress and the return you get then expand.

 

You can transplant extra suckers to increase your crop, you only want two sword suckers per plant growing.

 

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestions. 

The bloke is only interested in the Cavendish as he has a contract to supply these ones.

Manure is going to be easy to get.  Apparently, the soil we have should be good for bananas, but who knows.

Well we may start with a 100 and get a 100 good suckers to plant another 100 a few months later. 

[garrya]

3 hours ago, tweedledee2 said:

  I suggest you do more research. I think your expectations for harvesting a full crop every 8 months will not happen. It takes about 9 months for the plant to mature before bearing fruit. Then after the plant flowers, it can take up to 2 months or more before the fruit will be ready. Each stalk will only bear fruit 1 time and then needs to be cut out to allow new growth. I have seen very few trees having multiple stalks bearing fruit at the same time, at least mine don't. I also believe your estimate on the number of plants in a Rai is twice what is recommended. A true Rai 40mX40m plot should at most have no more than 18 plants in a row squared. Another thing to consider is the logistics required between harvesting and delivery of the crop.

Thanks, I knew my calculations were wrong. Of course we went with what a local guy told us :-).

We would plant the bananas in 2 stages, half first and the rest a few months later.

[garrya]

2 hours ago, grollies said:

Dude, it will stop raining in November. You'll need drip irrigation.

In our area it rains well beyond November. But regardless, I will get my lady to get a quote on irrigation. 

 

[garrya]

45 minutes ago, thoongfoned said:

in the past 2 years the local amper as been paying/giving help for people to plant bannas, rice,grass or dig fish ponds ect think the wife got about 20,000 baht to do some project or other. they have been out twice to check if work has happened.... in the past 6 months they have been giving some more money out for the new must have crop/project ect....

we have bannas, no more than 200/300 "clumps" here and there, mainly around pools of water,  the kids like to eat them, sister in laws pigs  like em, the rest we give away to family or friends that visit... dont expect to get any cash back after the set up costs, maintance, vits ect have been taken back out. if you could may get 1,000 or 2,000 baht profit from that one rai i would say that you have done well...... 

 

We don't mind getting our hands dirty, but if the reward is so little, we have to move on. 

The banana we would have sell better than the small bananas so the profit must be higher, but who knows.

It is good to hear that the local amphur is fairly generous over there. Unfortunately,it is not the case here. If the one wants that fund here he must "know" someone. 

 

 

 

 

[thoongfoned]

31 minutes ago, garrya said:

We don't mind getting our hands dirty, but if the reward is so little, we have to move on. 

The banana we would have sell better than the small bananas so the profit must be higher, but who knows.

It is good to hear that the local amphur is fairly generous over there. Unfortunately,it is not the case here. If the one wants that fund here he must "know" someone. 

 

 

 

 

im always digging up the new shoots and re planting them in different places.... if you buy some in then just re plant when you have new shoots....

example of what a lady up the road does, she has those cavandish bannas... 4 or 5 rai in bannas, all near to water/ponds, pumps water when no rain (6 months dry) pig poo(has pig farm)and weed clearing, family labor, sells bannas at her family shop in the village. 10/20 baht per "hand"  on a good tree this will have around 8 plus "hands", may be from one tree 30/40kg (top end) but then think about the tree that only gives 2 or 3 "hands". always good to be planting something if you have land spare.... 

[kickstart]

2 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

in the past 2 years the local amper as been paying/giving help for people to plant bannas, rice,grass or dig fish ponds ect think the wife got about 20,000 baht to do some project or other. they have been out twice to check if work has happened.... in the past 6 months they have been giving some more money out for the new must have crop/project ect....

we have bannas, no more than 200/300 "clumps" here and there, mainly around pools of water,  the kids like to eat them, sister in laws pigs  like em, the rest we give away to family or friends that visit... dont expect to get any cash back after the set up costs, maintance, vits ect have been taken back out. if you could may get 1,000 or 2,000 baht profit from that one rai i would say that you have done well...... 

 

I

 

1 hour ago, garrya said:

We don't mind getting our hands dirty, but if the reward is so little, we have to move on. 

The banana we would have sell better than the small bananas so the profit must be higher, but who knows.

It is good to hear that the local amphur is fairly generous over there. Unfortunately,it is not the case here. If the one wants that fund here he must "know" someone. 

 

 

 

 

I think it is your local Or-Bor-Tor, Organization Governing the Sub-District, the same place where you pay your land tax, different government department from the Ampure, that will be handing out any money.

Go in and ask them.

[grollies]

1 hour ago, thoongfoned said:

im always digging up the new shoots and re planting them in different places.... if you buy some in then just re plant when you have new shoots....

example of what a lady up the road does, she has those cavandish bannas... 4 or 5 rai in bannas, all near to water/ponds, pumps water when no rain (6 months dry) pig poo(has pig farm)and weed clearing, family labor, sells bannas at her family shop in the village. 10/20 baht per "hand"  on a good tree this will have around 8 plus "hands", may be from one tree 30/40kg (top end) but then think about the tree that only gives 2 or 3 "hands". always good to be planting something if you have land spare.... 

That's about right, missus gets B10 per hand for small bananas, but only get 6 - 8 hands which I thought was pretty poor.

 

Good thing is we always gave bananas.

[CLW]

I don't know where are you located, but in Phetchaburi province there is a cooperative that produces Cavendish bananas for supermarkets and export to Japan.
Your farm needs to be certified by them with things such as GAP etc.
They pick up the fruits and do all the processing such as packing, ripening etc.
By the way, it's the bananas at Big c who have that purple tape "Japan quality"

[garrya]

35 minutes ago, CLW said:

I don't know where are you located, but in Phetchaburi province there is a cooperative that produces Cavendish bananas for supermarkets and export to Japan.
Your farm needs to be certified by them with things such as GAP etc.
They pick up the fruits and do all the processing such as packing, ripening etc.
By the way, it's the bananas at Big c who have that purple tape "Japan quality"

We are in Songkhla and the broker would apparently sort out licences and other things. 

[thoongfoned]

1 hour ago, grollies said:

That's about right, missus gets B10 per hand for small bananas, but only get 6 - 8 hands which I thought was pretty poor.

 

Good thing is we always gave bananas.

to be 'onest i never cut the bananas up into hands, just get the job of carry back to the house, some of our bananas that sit around the  back wash from the pigs produce some heavy/alot of bananas.... these are mainly the small sweet stuff that i like, the other larger stuff (cavendish)that im not keen on get planted else where....

we too have bananas most of the time (but give away) the wife/kids likes to buy in from the local shops.......

on the free money bit the local PA system tells when and how to get what from said office.... we live of the grid so to speak so the wifes sisters fills her in on whats what... that money she got some time ago means she cannot get any more for x amount of years, to me its crazy that they gave her any in the first place.....