Banana is commonly propagated by:

Concept

Vegetative propagation produces new plants from non-seed plant parts.

In commonly seedless cultivated crops, growers use a structure that contains living buds and can develop into a genetically similar plant.

Application

1. A banana plant has a reduced underground stem called a rhizome.

2. Buds on the rhizome develop into daughter shoots called suckers.

3. A suitable sucker is separated with viable rhizome tissue and planted, where it develops into a new banana plant.

Contrast

• Stem cuttings: the visible banana pseudostem consists largely of overlapping leaf sheaths, so treating it as an ordinary stem cutting is the misconception.

• Leaves: a detached banana leaf does not ordinarily regenerate into a complete plant; leaf propagation belongs to certain other species.

• Seeds: commercial cultivated bananas are generally seedless, so ordinary seed sowing is not the conventional propagation method.

Cross-check

Official horticulture guidance describes banana propagation as vegetative propagation by suckers and identifies sword suckers as standard planting material.

Therefore, banana is commonly propagated by suckers.