If you plant at a spacing of 3×3 metres within rows, you can have 450 plants on an acre. Standard holes should be 60cm deep and wide.
Bananas take nine to 12 months to start fruiting. However, by this time, there should be at least two new stems on the first plants.
It is important that you do not allow each plant to have more than three other stems in order to avoid congestion.
Over congested plants produce small bunches. Congested shambas produce weights of lower than 40kg while sparse shambas produce weights of 60kg and above.
In the first year, you will be able to harvest at least 450 bunches, however, as the new stems also start producing, harvests will go up.
You will spend at least sh900,000 to sh1.5m on good suckers. With three stems per clump you will harvest at least 1,350 bunches each year. If you sell each at sh10,000, you can earn a conservative sh13.5m per year.
The costs include weeding twice a year at a cost of sh300,000, mulching once a year at sh150,000, using organic fertilisers, for example, dung or chicken droppings per year at sh400,000.
