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November 2004. A coconut and cocoa grower in Papua New Guinea asked for a cost-effective way to kill bananas that were a nuisance in the plantation.
Several ideas were given:
1. Slash them down, it is realtively cheap and good exercise for your health! If a chemical is needed, then use 245-T).
2. Make a cut in the pseudostem and squirt in a dilution of 2,4 D, dicamba or Roundup. Banana take a while to die. Otherwise, cut them off near ground level and put the herbicide on the cut stem surface.
3. Inject with glyphosate (Roundup or Touchdown work equally as well). Inject 10 mls of 1:10 Roundup into a mature stem and 5 mls into a sucker. Injections are made 20-30 cm above ground level. Higher rates will kill then faster. If you inject all the stems and suckers in a clump the whole clump usually dies with little or no regrowth. If the stems are particularly large it may be necessary to inject twice with 10 mls – on opposite sides of the pseudostem.
The red plastic Velpar guns with a spike seem to work well. Commercial banana growers in north Queensland use a gun, that would suit your requirements, to inject diesel or kerosene into decapitated suckers as part of the desuckering process.
4. Without chemical: dig, uproot, split butts, dry out. Roundup injections or diesel works very well. Cut off spear points and form a crater, por in a small amount (dishwashing soap bottle) of diesel. This technique can also be used when desukering a young plantation.
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