For those of you in colder climates start this in the spring but do the operation in early to midsummer. I'm going to tell you how to force your tree to make pups. I used a Lotus banana tree. First you need a good size tree no less than 5 ft. tall trunk and 6"-8" diameter. You want to change the soil to a organic matter mixed with high Phosphorous and Nitrogen. Remember that we are after propagation and not fruiting. Good sources of fertilizers that have high P and N are amazingly the cheap lawn starter fertalizer ( ie 18-24-6 [trugreen], 20-27-5 [scott] ). Don't use those formulations that have weedicides or herbicides or crabgrass preventer. P is only needed by bananas, but it will enhance formation of pups when supplied together with high N. The amount of fertilizer will depend on the size of the plant and your soil conditions. For a 5 foot high trunk planted in the ground, use about 2 to 4 cups of fertilizer. Once the plant is responding well, do the most horrific thing: Chop off the trunk to ground level. After a few weeks you will have 4 to 30 pups growing around the corm. My Lotus had 32 pups. Do this only to adult plants at least 5 ft. high trunk, but far from their blooming height, preferrablly those with a 6"-8" diameter are good candidates to force them to pup.
This information is from an article by Joe Real which appeared on the bananas.org website, but I did use a Lotis Banana tree with great results.
CJ
Secret to multiplying bananas
I have found JoeReal's citrus advice to be sound. I suspect his banana advice is likewise sound. This technique would appear to delay the harvest of any fruit for 1-2 years, correct?
Any young plant is basically a baby. Like any baby, it needs time to grow and mature before it will bear fruit. In that sense the harvest is delayed in the same way as when you buy any inmature fruit true. I hope this clears up your question.