GARDENING GOING BANANAS.

My late biochemistry profeAssor would often say, in his thick Irish accent, that breakfast items such as milk, toasted slices of bread and bananas are the best sources of potassium.

Nowadays, many nutritionists encourage their patients to consume more bananas to compensate for their potassium deficiency. One may even see sportspersons, especially tennis stars, consuming a couple of bananas between sets, to quickly replenish their depleting energy, in order to ensure that optimum potassium levels are maintained throughout the game.

Bananas are also usually recommended as part of a healthy diet for anyone dealing with heart-related problems, because they help patients increase their blood pressure and uric acid. Those suffering from constipation or heartburn also feel relieved after eating a banana or two.

The banana is one of Pakistan's major fruit crops and is mostly grown in Sindh. It can be easily grown at home as well. The most commonly used and the easiest method to produce your own bananas is to grow the banana plant through pups of the mother plant. Pups are known to many as suckers or baby plants which grow around the mother plant. These are usually purchased from a plant nursery or can also be acquired from a friend or family member who is already growing bananas at their home.

Given the variety of health-related benefits bananas have to offer, here's a quick guide to how you can grow your very own potassium-rich fruit plant at home

There are usually three to five pups growing around the mother plant. If the number of pups exceeds this, then the extra baby plants need to be removed. This will ensure continued and better energy supply to the mother plant.

It is recommended to leave only two to three pups around the mother plant if you wish to continue to grow bananas across generations of the plant. Otherwise, all the pups should be removed. Since the banana plant provides for only one harvest in its entire life-cycle, it needs to be removed just after its yield is harvested. Otherwise, it becomes a burden on the garden.

The pup can be grown as a separate plant after the harvest from the mother plant is made and once the pup reaches a height of at least two feet. The plant should be grown in the ground and not in a container. This is because the roots of a banana plant...