Studies on nutrition as qualified by development in Musa cavendishii Lambert

Abstract

Inquiries prosecuted in 1938 showed that growers of Cavendish bananas (Musa cavendishii Lamb.) in Queensland generally could claim little apparent benefit from the use of the fertilizers they employed, and certainly there was no evidence that as the result of previous experience any particular material or mixture of materials had commanded favour in even comparatively small communities. Though some mixtures were used more generally than others, the impression gained was that most growers worked with hope, rather than certainty, that the fertilizer would prove of benefit. Replanting of old land with bananas is rarely undertaken and consequently the industry moves more and more on to less fertile country. As this second-class land increases in proportion production figures diminish; or, at best, are maintained only by considerably increased labour and other costs. The problem of maintaining soil fertility by artificial means is thus an increasingly important one to the banana industry.