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How To Kill Banana Trees Using 5 Simple Chemical And Manual Methods

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Although growing your banana plant in the backyard can be highly satisfying, you may need to remove it due to illness, pests, or bad placement. A banana tree only bears fruit once during its lifetime.

After that, it’s no longer of any use. Again, the banana tree outpaces so quickly that you’ll be surprised at how much land it takes up. So. If you want a banana tree in your yard, you’ll need to know how to kill banana trees to keep up with their rapid development.

However, if banana plants are already overrunning your lovely grass and you’re stumped as to what to do, don’t panic.

Whether growing banana plants for their fruit or ornamental purposes, they’re a great addition to any home landscaping.

There are several motives why you might desire to eliminate the banana plants’ roots, which are frequently mistakenly referred to as trees. They have a rhizomatic root structure that sends up new stalks, resulting in a sequence of stems that eventually grow into active fruiting plants.

Crowding and competition may result from the shallow but large rhizomes and these spreading shoots. Prevention requires the complete elimination of these root portions and their buds.

How To Kill Banana Trees
Banana Trees via Wikimedia

Because of their underground rhizomes, bananas are famously tough to eradicate. These rhizomes give rise to “pups,” or offshoots, eventually forming new banana plants.

Your banana has probably gone off like a rocket in a USDA zone where bananas not only flourish but thrive. A rhizome colony can be found beneath a banana stand.

On the other hand, a banana plant will not spread itself using parts of its stem; only a rhizome will do so. You might be able to avoid the plant reappearing if you can dig out the entire clump.

Banana rhizomes develop roots that can extend up to 16 feet broad and reach depths of up to 5 feet. If the banana trees haven’t flown up to their entire branches, the procedure of removing them isn’t nearly as difficult.

A Guide on How to Kill Banana Trees

When your affection for that banana plant you planted years back begins to wane, and this once-pleasant plant has infiltrated unwelcome regions of the yard, you have two options: use a lot of muscular power or go for the poison option.

Suppose you wouldn’t want to jeopardize the quality of your soil or generate potentially hazardous conditions for your dogs, wildlife, or children. In that case, the machete, coupled with a spade and a pick, is your best bet for removing a banana.

Herbicides can be used to destroy banana plants, but the best way to kill banana trees would be to employ a less-toxic method that you prefer.

How to Kill Banana Trees Using a Manual Method

  • When removing a banana plant by hand, it can be not easy if the banana is quite huge.
  • Try employing a landscaping professional to dig out the root system with a backhoe if you have a long-established banana plant with several offshoots.
  • To take on a small banana plant on your own, chop it down to around 1 to 2 feet in height.
  • Using a pickax and a shovel, dig a deep trench around the plant as wide as possible, surrounding the whole clump of rhizomes.
  • Start digging the stems and rhizomes out.
  • When removing the pseudostem, a machete or other tool is great for breaking it into pieces.
  • This isn’t a science; all you have to do is collect as much of the rhizome system as feasible.
  • As even the smallest bit of rhizome can develop a new plant, fresh branches will likely appear later.
  • Keep digging until you find these unwanted volunteers.

How to Kill Banana Trees Using Chemical Method

Consider using a chemical if you can’t get rid of a banana in your yard or don’t want to deal with the hard labor.

Using Kerosene Oil

  • Kerosene is an inexpensive and effective way to kill a banana tree. Fill a cup halfway with water and pour it into the banana plant’s growing point.
  • Smaller plants require less water, such as 100 ml for plants up to 1 meter tall and 50 ml for suckers.
  • The kerosene penetrates the plant’s tissues.
  • It destroys the plant in five to seven days.
  • Dig out the rhizome (root) and break it into pieces once the plant has died.
  • This is the only method for preventing plantlets from regenerating.

Using Herbicides

  • If you don’t want to go to the trouble of digging out the banana roots and want the simplest technique with the least difficulty, use herbicides.
  • Huge banana trees infested with pests or diseases cannot be felled.
  • An herbicide can be injected straight into the plant’s trunk to kill it.
  • Glyphosate and 2,4-D or 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid are the finest herbicides for this job.
  • Most plants die within six weeks after being injected, at which point they should be physically removed and killed to avoid disease spread.

How to Kill Banana Trees by Felling

Felling is the most popular way to chop plants, particularly logs. If the banana trees are mature and free of diseases, you can cut them down completely to cease their growth.

  • Get hold of an easily grip-able ax.
  • Begin cutting from one of the banana tree’s bottom edges.
  • Around one-fifth of the overall decreased diameter, cut and form a notch.
  • After being felled, healthy and mature plants can send up shoots or suckers, which must be removed to destroy the banana plant entirely.
  • After the felling of the banana tree, cut the tree shrunk properly to prevent any future banana generations.
  • The trunk can also be cut up and composted safely.

How to Kill Banana Trees Using Black Plastic Wrapping

  • Wrapping banana trees in black plastic is another simple and effective approach to kill them.
  • Yes, you should chop down the banana trees and cover the roots in black plastic. Then leave them to die in this state. After a few weeks, the tree or the roots will turn a yellowish to brown tint.
  • Now is not the time to remove the wrap. Please wait a few more days like this because revealing the roots will allow them to reconnect with the sun and re-energize.

Though this procedure is inexpensive and convenient, it is time-consuming and uncertain. As a result, any of the procedures listed above should be used.


Final Remarks

Killing banana plants is not easy, but now you have so many ways to do it; as you’ve read the article on how to kill banana trees, I hope you can easily do it yourself.

Though all of the methods presented here are practical and valuable, the dig-out method is the finest. Yes, removing the banana trees is more beneficial than the others.

So, experiment with the ideal one for your lawn and free your preferred lawn from the grip of banana trunks.

You can kill a banana plant by cutting it down and removing any suckers that develop around the base, digging it up completely, applying a chemical herbicide, or filling a cut stalk with kerosene.

Herbicides, kerosene, and other chemicals should be handled cautiously because they can harm the ecosystem. Herbicides should always be applied according to the packaging directions and recommended dosage.

Spills should be cleaned up right once to avoid toxic chemicals getting into the land or water.